Prototypes (1848–1903) (1903), at
Coney Island, one of the first oval-looping coasters The first inversion in roller coaster history was part of the
Centrifugal Railway of
Paris,
France, built in 1848. During the early 1900s, many rides including vertical loops appeared around the world. These early loops had a major design flaw: the circular structure produced intense
g-forces (hereafter "Gs"). The
Flip Flap Railway, designed by
Lina Beecher and built in 1895 on
Coney Island of
Brooklyn,
United States, had a circular loop at the end which though initially popular caused some discomfort in passenger's necks, and the ride soon closed.
Loop the Loop, another looping coaster, was built later in Coney Island as well. This time the loops were slightly oval-shaped rather than circular, though not
clothoid in shape like modern loops. Although the ride was safe, it had a low capacity, loading four people every five minutes (48 people per hour, compared to 1800 riders per hour on
Corkscrew, an early modern coaster that opened in 1976), and was poorly received after the discomfort of the Flip Flap Railway. It is still the only coaster with this feature, as the only other coasters containing interlocking loops are now defunct: Lightnin' Loops, built by Arrow in
Six Flags Great Adventure, was sold in 1992, and
Orient Express of
Worlds of Fun was demolished in 2003. The first Schwarzkopf shuttle loops with a flywheel launch also first appeared in 1978. The Boomerang has had over 50 clones built worldwide from
Doha,
Qatar, to
Tashkent,
Uzbekistan. The record for number of inversions was broken quickly in the following years. Arrow's
Vortex at
Kings Island, built in 1987, was the first to have six. The next year,
Shockwave at
Six Flags Great America broke that record with seven inversions. In 1995,
Dragon Khan in
Spain's
Port Aventura became the first to have eight. In 2002,
Colossus at
Thorpe Park in
Chertsey,
Surrey, England was the first with ten. In 2013,
The Smiler at
Alton Towers in Staffordshire, England, broke the record again with 14 inversions. (2000) at
Kings Island, the first wooden roller coaster to have an inversion In 2000, Kings Island built
Son of Beast, the world's first
wooden roller coaster with a vertical loop. Until then, all roller coasters with any inversions were steel. After structural problems caused an incident in July 2006 that injured several riders, Son of Beast's loop was removed in December 2006 to make it possible to use lighter trains. In 2002,
X, now X2, designed by Arrow, opened in
Six Flags Magic Mountain. It is marketed as the world's first
fourth-dimension roller coaster, capable of rotating riders upside-down independently of any track elements. This adds difficulty in delineating the number of inversions such rides have. As the riders physically rotate
360 degrees forward and backwards, proponents insist the number of inversions should not include only track elements. According to
Guinness World Records, the roller coaster with the most inversions counted this way is
Eejanaika (, Ain't it great?), another 4th Dimension roller coaster, in
Fuji-Q Highland of
Fujiyoshida,
Japan, which rotates riders 14 times. Counting only track elements, however, Alton Tower's The Smiler has the world record for number of inversions, also rotating riders 14 times. Two or more wooden roller coasters with inversions opened in each of 2013, 2014, and 2017. As opposed to the vertical loop that Son of Beast had,
Outlaw Run and
Hades 360,
Mine Blower and
Goliath (at
Six Flags Great America) have more complex inversions. Outlaw Run at
Silver Dollar City has a double
barrel roll and a 153° over-banked turn, and Hades 360 has a single
corkscrew. Other elements which partially invert riders, such as the
overbanked turn which occasionally turn riders beyond 90 degrees, are not typically considered inversions. == See also ==