Monster roller coasters: the highest in the world

Everyone knows the images of sky-high roller coasters at amusement parks. They can be seen from far and adorn the skyline of the park like no other. Take a look at the world's highest roller coasters.

Kinda Ka at Six Flags

Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure - the highest roller coaster in the world.

Under the guise of 'bigger & better " the American parks fight for years for  the biggest and best roller coasters. This has led us to some real beauties of these steel monsters, but also to a few hopeless cases only wasted effort to counteract the competition. But change is in sight. In recent years we see the 'bigger & better' thinking increasingly return to the 'new park lands, think of the UAE and many countries in Asia.

 

The world's top builder

The top 10 steel roller coasters in the top is dominated by a Swiss power. Namely Intamin AG, they are on the top of the list with 8 roller coasters, the secret to these guys is probably the lift hill. While others use the classic chain, Intamin AG makes use of a steel cable which is much stronger and so  the train can get much faster to the top of the hill because of this therefore higher altitudes can be reached. With launched coasters  lies Intamin's success  in the fact that they  mastered this technology the best.

Colossos Heide Park

Colossos in Heide Park - the highest wooden roller coaster in the world

Even wth the wooden roller coasters Intamin AG does well. Although the company still has only build ten wooden roller coasters five of their jobs are in the top 10 highest wooden roller coasters. The rest of the list is completed by several other U.S. manufacturers. The success of high Intamin AG roller coasters wooden building is in the building process. While all other manufacturers  build a wooden roller coaster complete at the site itself, builds Intamin AG 'prefab'-coasters. They build large portions of the roller coaster in their factory and build the big pieces at the site together. This not only provides a flexible ride gradient  it also makes it easier to work into height.

The theme parks

Wooden roller coasters seem less "burden" to face the competition between the theme park chains for the highest roller coaster. Especially the steel versions  are high on the wish list of Cedar Fair and Six Flags group. Meanwhile it seems the battle for the record is over it stands now for nearly six years. But nothing is impossible nowadays, nobody will be surprised that tomorrow the world record will be broken again.