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Will the height record ever be beaten?

Ian

Ian

From CoasterForce
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The short answer is probably yes.

But the topic didn't end there!

Kingda Ka has held the tallest coaster in the world record since 2005. In modern times, that's a record itself. Take a look at this tacky graph I made, only two coasters have come close for holding on to the record for so long, Colossus at SFMM and Gemini at CP, 10 years, and strangely enough, at the same time.
heightrecordsgraph.png

Disclaimer: Coasters featured are those that held the title at the end of the year. For example, I know Millennium Force opened in 2000 and was at the time, the tallest in the world, but Steel Dragon came along that same year and pissed on its parade.

After 1990, coasters were popping up all over the place and the tallest title changed hands more times than it did before the 1990's (in the time period I'm looking at). The jumps in height were also dramatic in comparison.

Do you think the tallest coaster record will ever be beaten? If so, by whom and when? My money would be on an Arabian country thinking "**** it" and it appearing one day.

Are we stuck at 456 ft forever?
 
The graph never loaded for me :( I'm guessing you are not including coasters attached to other structures, like High Roller which existed on the stratosphere tower or if the polercoaster ever gets built?

As for pure coaster alone, I feel you are probably on the money with the Arabians.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
 
Yeah, it was the structure of the coaster itself, not what it is attached to. And according to the ever wonderful RCDB.
 
Uhh... which coaster did Steel Dragon 2000 take the height record from? It escapes my mind at the moment, and the text on the yellow part of the graph might be literally impossible to read.
(later addition to the post: RCDB says Fujiyama)

I'm not sure whether the record will go to the Arabs or to China. Dubailand had a neat model with a Strata coaster a lot of years ago, and this was in the middle of Dubai's "Money is no concern" phase, so I think they at least planned to beat the record. Might have gotten more sensible after the whole near-bankruptcy thing, though.

In China, money is spent on parks on a fantastic scale too, but they seem reluctant to build launched coasters, which I believe is the only sensible way to beat the height record. If I recall correctly, TTD and Kingda Ka both pull the same amount of electricty from the grid as a medium-sized town, which I believe might be a big reason why the Chinese haven't sprung for those records already. Not that they don't have enough electricity, but that the infrastructure might not be up to the task, especially since new parks tend to be built alongside other developments. The grid companies need to constantly monitor and adapt to a situation where a new residential skyscraper is hooked up to the local grid every month or so. Letting an up-and-coming park get a free pass to build a power guzzler like Kingda Ka might not be the smartest idea until the consumption of the rest of the region has stabilized somewhat, and the grid has proved it can handle the load in the long term. Likewise, parks would not build coasters they wouldn't be allowed to operate reliably. Occasional brown-outs in a newly built residential district may be expected and to some degree tolerated, but not knowing whether your new, expensive theme park attraction will be able to work at all, is not tolerable financially. We just discussed this in a recent topic, but here it is again, this time in even more words.

As for the rest of the world... I can't see anybody try to go for that record soon. The gimmick doesn't seem to be worth it. Theme parks appear to be struggling in Japan, the US market is famously saturated, air rights are a bother no matter where you go, and the required investment very big for an attraction that only caters to the most extreme thrillseekers.

Of course, there could be somebody utilizing a mountain side to create a full-circuit Alpine-ish coaster, but they wouldn't get the "structural height" aspect of the record. Likewise, you could potentially do interesting things with mine shafts, but same story.

Great topic for discussion, by the way!
 
Someday 500 will be reached... but I hope it's in a more traditional sense and not with the Poler Coaster Design. If the polar coaster in Orlando ever gets built, I'll be sure to ride it, obviously.... But I'm still against going up 500 feet to only drop down 30 or 40 feet at a time. I want a nice gigantic 500 foot drop but maybe I just want too much.
 
Pokemaniac said:
Of course, there could be somebody utilizing a mountain side to create a full-circuit Alpine-ish coaster, but they wouldn't get the "structural height" aspect of the record. Likewise, you could potentially do interesting things with mine shafts, but same story.
Click to expand...
The current longest Alpine Coaster in the world, Tobotronc in Naturlandia, Andorra (https://rcdb.com/13054.htm) has the height differential of 437m, which is almost 300m (!) more than the structural height of Kingda Ka. But as you said, something like that can in no way be considered as the world's highest coaster...
 
I think the height record will be broken by something like a polercoaster, but Ka's drop length record is likely to stand for a long time.
 
Raises an interesting point and I honestly can't think of a park which may beat the record anytime soon.

If we did see it broken surely it would just be a taller TTD/KK clone anyway. Having said that hydraulic launch coasters are rarely built anymore.

I think the best chance we have had of seeing it beaten was the Ferrari Land coaster. Sadly they went with the LSM abomination instead.
 
Technically Moonsault Scramble held the record for 13 years.

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^ And the United States was technically never at war with Korea or Vietnam.

The Polar coaster would be the easiest way to break the height limit, though as CanobieFan points out - it feels like a shortcut.
 
Hyde said:
The Polar coaster would be the easiest way to break the height limit, though as CanobieFan points out - it feels like a shortcut.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. If some kind of mix between Kärnan/Cannibal and Oblivion was built, it could take the record cheaply enough. Turn out of station, vertical lift up giant tower, straight drop down, TTD-like brake section, turn back towards station with a few bunny hops to cover the horizontal distance. Probably cheaper to build than the Strata coasters, involves less track than the Polercoaster. You'd need a long and narrow strip of land for the brakes, though.
 
I see some park in Europe going for the record. There are a few hydraulic launched coasters in England now. Such as Rita at Alton Towers and Stealth at Thorpe Park. Maybe Chessington Worlds of Adventure or Blackpool Pleasure Beach will go for height records in the following seasons.

But until then, Kingda Ka will hold its record. For all we know, CP may take a stab at it and make a dueling Strato. Seems a little far-fetched, but it could happen.
 
^Blackpool perhaps. I believe chessington has excessively strict noise/height regulations with it so has no chance of anything record-y going there (unless it's a very low to the ground launch for the length and/or speed record)
 
Blackpool can't afford it and the weather wouldn't suit it.

Chessington? Don't make me laugh.

When it's broken again I reckon it'll be in Asia somewhere.
 
I reckon that the only European park which had a shot at it was PA and they decided against it. I guess it must be *really* expensive to not only build such a monstrous structure, but to operate it. Are there any other European parks with enough money, land and need for such a big coaster anyway?

I, too, think it will be an Asian park the one to claim the record.
 
I wouldn't put it past the UAE to nab the height record to go along with the speed record. After all, they do have the worlds tallest building. If not there then China somewhere, the parks in Europe and the States either wouldn't spend the money to get it that high, or would have issues with planning(Alton) and/or operating it(Blackpool).
 
No parks seem to be that bothered about breaking it - or any manufacturers for that matter. Have any manufacturers produced any designs for anything taller than Kingda Ka? I don't remember seeing any. I doubt the next record breaker will be a slightly larger Ka clone, because what is the point? Unless it is significantly taller and offers a different experience because of the increased height, I think it would be a waste of extra steel as it will be recognised as 'just another Kingda Ka'. A slightly smaller one (such as PA's) will attract the same amount of tourism imo.

I think S&S will do something within the next 10 years. Complete stab in the dark, but there you go :).
 
mouse said:
Have any manufacturers produced any designs for anything taller than Kingda Ka? I don't remember seeing any. I doubt the next record breaker will be a slightly larger Ka clone, because what is the point? Unless it is significantly taller and offers a different experience because of the increased height, I think it would be a waste of extra steel as it will be recognised as 'just another Kingda Ka'. A slightly smaller one (such as PA's) will attract the same amount of tourism imo.

I think S&S will do something within the next 10 years. Complete stab in the dark, but there you go .
Click to expand...

Something like the... Polercoasters xD

So yes manufacturers have designed stuff taller than Ka.
 
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