Roller coasters are one the
backbones of amusement parks. A good roller coaster is often the
most popular attraction at a park, and when new coasters are built,
they lead to surges in guest attendance. Overall, they're a business win
for the park, and a win for the guest. These engineered machines are expensive,
and parks buy roller coasters with the intent that they will last for decades
and satisfy millions of park-goers. But let me tell you the story of Drachen Fire,
a multi-million dollar roller coaster that opened at Busch Gardens Williamsburg
in 1992 and was ultimately a failure. The ride was built by Arrow Dynamics,
the same company who had built the park Loch Ness Monster in 1978,
and Big Bad Wolf in 1984. Drachen Fire was supposed to be the new
headlining attraction at Busch Gardens. Compared to Loch Ness Monster, it featured
a new and innovative design concept. But instead, it quickly grew a terrible reputation
because of how rough and jarring it was. Drachen Fire wouldn't even operate a full
ten years and closed forever in July of 1998. In this video, we'll take a deep dive
into what went wrong with Drachen Fire, and how its designers tried to improve on the
experience of something like Loch Ness Monster, which is the exact same ride model as
Drachen Fire, and how that completely backfired. We'll also address common misconceptions
about the origins of Drachen Fire and other aspects of the ride's design, that
have been wrongly discussed in other videos and on various websites time and time again. If you wouldn't mind, please hit the LIKE button as that will help the channel greatly
against the YouTube algorithm. All right, let's dig in. As I discussed in my Problematic Roller Coasters
video on Loch Ness Monster, which is the precursor to this video, Anheuser-Busch first opened
Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 1975. This was after the company had purchased
3,000 acres (1,214 ha) of land off the James River, where they made a deal
with the historical capital of Williamsburg that they'd build a residential area as
well as a theme park on their new property to help boost tourism in the Williamsburg area. The park first opened as Busch Gardens:
The Old Country and was themed to different countries in Europe as they
were in the 17th and 18th centuries. This was so the park didn't detract from
the historical site in Williamsburg. The park performed exceptionally and exceeded
guest attendance projections for the 1975 season. 1976 saw a major expansion of
the park's German-themed area, and introduced Oktoberfest, a new
10 acre (4 ha) land that debuted Festhaus, a 21,000 square foot (1,950 sqm)
building for shows and dining. The new land also introduced eight new rides,
two of which were roller coasters: The kiddie roller coaster Das Kätzchen,
built by the Allan Herschell Company; and Die Wildkatze, a Schwarzkopf Wildcat coaster,
which was later removed in 1983 to make room for the swinging
suspended roller coaster Big Bad Wolf, a ride I hope to one day cover in
the Problematic Roller Coaster series. As part of a massive expansion
of the original Busch Gardens Park, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay -- which was
renamed Busch Gardens: The Dark Continent in 1976 -- Anheuser-Busch purchased
a $2 million roller coaster from the best ride manufacturer of
the time, Arrow Development. It opened as Python in 1976 and helped
increase the Tampa park's attendance by an overall 2.5 percent that season. And over at The Old Country, the park
faced competition from the nearby Kings Dominion, which had also opened
in 1975 and featured more impressive roller coasters like the twin racing
wooden coaster Rebel Yell and the launched shuttle loop
coaster King Kobra that featured a state-of-the-art vertical loop that riders
traversed both forwards and backwards. To remain competitive, Anheuser-Busch
purchased an even larger looping roller coaster from Arrow Development to open at
The Old Country in 1978: Loch Ness Monster. Loch Ness Monster opened as the
world's tallest and fastest roller coaster with the steepest drop in the world. It would also sport the world's first
pair of interlocking vertical loops. For the time period, Loch Ness Monster
was truly an engineering marvel. It pushed the limits of roller coaster design
and manufacturing and did so successfully. The ride was an instant hit and even led to the
formation of the American Coaster Enthusiasts, or ACE, a renowned organization
of roller coaster enthusiasts. Following the success of Loch Ness Monster,
Anheuser-Busch would continue to expand The Old Country as part of their plan to attract
not only new visitors, but also to convince regional guests to make
return visits year after year. And the park had to remain competitive
with the nearby Kings Dominion that was just an hour away by car. In 1980, The Old Country added on
to its villages themed to England, Scotland, France, and Germany, when
it debuted a new area themed to Italy. The Italian section was the park's third
major expansion after opening in 1975, and along with it came a new 350 foot (107 m)
long bridge over the Rhine River to take guests from Oktoberfest
to the new Italian-themed area. As intended, the new section introduced
an authentic Italian flavor with architecture from between the Roman and Renaissance
time period, new dining and show experiences, and the all-new Leonardo DaVinci's
Garden Inventions, which featured several new flat rides. 1984 saw the addition of Big Bad Wolf, a
swinging suspended roller coaster built by Arrow Huss, the same manufacturer
that had built Loch Ness Monster. Arrow Development had since been purchased by
the German company Huss, hence the new name. The new state-of-the-art roller coaster where
riders swung like a bat beneath the track was designed by Ron Toomer, the same
man who designed Loch Ness Monster. Located in the park's Oktoberfest area,
the coaster transported guests through an old German village as
trains careened through different turns, sending the cars swinging all over. This was followed by a perfect ending
where riders took an 80 foot (24 m) plunge down a ravine sending trains at 48 mph
(77 km/h) right over the Rhine River. As the years continued, the park would continue
to grow in size and attract more visitors. 1987 saw the addition of Fiesta Italia,
which was themed to a fair celebrating the return of Marco Polo
to Italy after his visit to China. The new section would see the
debut of Roman Rapids in 1988. Unfortunately, attendance at The Old Country
would fall during the 1990 season, as a global recession and the Persian
Gulf War shook the global economy. Rising gas prices and fears of terrorism
kept Americans from traveling. To counteract the park's declining
performance, The Old Country looked to install a major new roller coaster. On July 5th, 1991, the park announced they
would be opening a new roller coaster in 1992. This unnamed roller coaster would be
located in the Oktoberfest Hamlet and would stand 150 feet (46 m) tall, reach speeds of 60 mph (97 km/h), feature a length of 3,550 feet (1,183 m), sport a "camelback" hump designed to
prolong the feeling of near weightlessness, and feature several new ride elements like a wraparound corkscrew
into a twisted first drop off the lift hill. The park would later announce that the
ride would be named Drachen Fire, with 'Drachen' meaning 'Dragon' in German. But most important to our story, Drachen Fire
would be built by Arrow Dynamics, the same company who had delivered Busch Gardens
Loch Ness Monster as Arrow Development and Big Bad Wolf as Arrow Huss. It is commonly said that Drachen Fire was
originally designed and intended to be built by Bolliger & Mabillard, or B&M, a Swiss roller
coaster manufacturer, but this is not true. Today, B&M is one of the most well-regarded
coaster manufacturers and the company has delivered well over 100 roller coasters
across the globe that are all safe, reliable, and excellent, with some being better than others.
But back in 1990 when planning first started to add Drachen Fire, B&M was still in its infancy.
The company had only been founded two years prior in 1988. And while Walter Bolliger
and Claude Mabillard, B&M's founders, had designed roller coasters like Z-Force
at Six Flags Great America and Shockwave at Six Flags Magic Mountain
during their time at Giovanola, B&M as a company had only built one roller coaster
themselves, the stand-up roller coaster Iron Wolf at Six Flags Great America. So there really wasn't much
on the company's portfolio. I've heard time and time again that
Anheuser-Busch approached B&M to build two sit-down looping
roller coasters in the early 1990s: One at their Williamsburg Park,
and one at their Tampa Park. And that B&M had a ride design finalized for
Williamsburg that would have been Drachen Fire. But since B&M was both a new
and conservative company, they would only deliver two new rides a year. For 1992,
B&M was already set to deliver their first ever inverted roller coaster, Batman the
Ride at Six Flags Great America, and Vortex, a stand-up roller coaster at Carowinds.
And following that, B&M were already set to deliver another two roller coasters
in 1993, so the company apparently told Anheuser-Busch that they could only
do one of the two looping coasters. Which ended up being Kumba
at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. The story continues that Anheuser-Busch
then turned to Arrow Dynamics and asked the company to pick up where B&M had
left off and build B&M's Drachen Fire. Arrow then allegedly tried to mimic
B&M's original concept and layout, down to the very support structure, ride
elements, and even the ride's control system. But none of this is true. This story has been corroborated by the fact
that both the Williamsburg and Tampa parks have received new rides in pairs,
such as Tampa's Montu in 1996, followed by Williamsburg's Alpengeist in 1997,
and then Tampa's SheiKra in 2005, followed by Williamsburg's Griffon in 2007,
among many other back-to-back similar additions. But this wasn't the case with Drachen Fire.
When Drachen Fire was being built, the Busch Gardens parks had more individual liberty
when it came to implementing new attractions. Now let me tell you what actually happened. Arrow Dynamics was never the second-choice
manufacturer that attempted to copy B&M's ride design. It was in fact the opposite.
From day one of Drachen Fire's planning, Arrow was a first-choice manufacturer
and Busch Gardens Williamsburg was actually reluctant to choose B&M.
Now B&M certainly offered a product that was a leap forward in terms of design
and engineering, but their products were over double the cost of Arrow's.
And as I just mentioned, B&M were still in their infancy as a company and had
only built one roller coaster themselves. Whereas Busch Gardens Williamsburg had
already built trust with Arrow after the company successfully delivered the
park's two headlining roller coasters. Now it's from what I understand that Busch
Gardens Williamsburg still approached B&M early in the planning process as a potential
bidder on the project, but those talks apparently fell through before any designs
were submitted by B&M. Thus, fate would have it that Williamsburg went
with what was considered the tried and trusted Arrow Dynamics for Drachen Fire and Busch
Gardens Tampa took what was considered more of a risk with B&M for Kumba, which
absolutely ended up being the better choice. But from day one, Drachen Fire was
100 percent an Arrow roller coaster that was designed from start
to finish by Ron Toomer. There was no copying of a
former B&M layout whatsoever. Arrow initially proposed a
mega-looping roller coaster like Great American Scream Machine at
Six Flags Great Adventure, but Williamsburg told Arrow to go back to the drawing
board as they wanted their new coaster to take up less space. The park also wanted Arrow to differentiate
the coaster from anything done before and give it a new flavor to echo in
a new wave of roller coasters. Busch Gardens wanted new ride elements rather
than the cookie-cutter elements Arrow had used for years, a new ride vehicle design that
differed from what was on Loch Ness Monster, and a more free-standing support structure
unlike Arrow's classic lattice structure found on something like Loch Ness Monster. And I'm sure part of the park's ambitions
were to help set Drachen Fire apart from the new Anaconda
at the nearby Kings Dominion, which was under construction
and opened in the spring of 1991. Anaconda is 100 percent a legacy Arrow
looping coaster with cookie-cutter elements, Arrow's lattice support structure,
and their older train design. To help meet Busch Garden's requests,
Drachen Fire was the first roller coaster that Arrow utilized Computer-Aided Design,
or CAD, to aid the design process. This milestone should have been achieved
much earlier in Arrow's existence, but Ron Toomer was stubborn when it
came to adopting new design practices as he had stuck to drafting coasters by hand
for years longer than he should have. Either way, the use of CAD allowed Ron Toomer
and his team of engineers to step away from the copy-and-paste ride elements
they had been using since the 1970s and create new elements and inversions. With CAD, designers were able to define points
in space and bend the track around that, and better calculate the speeds and G-forces
that would be exerted along the track. CAD even allowed designers to
virtually ride Drachen Fire to get a feel for what it would be like when riding it.
Altogether, this aided the creation of the wraparound corkscrew off the lift hill, the
batwing which was Arrow's name for a cobra roll, and the cutback, which started as
a corkscrew, but the second half of the element was reversed, sending the train
in the opposite direction it entered from. Better yet, the ride didn't feature a single
vertical loop, a boomerang -- which was Arrow's naming of a batwing -- or a double
corkscrew -- which Arrow actually referred to as a corkscrew -- with the classically
awkward overbanked turn leading into them. These elements had been copied and pasted on
so many of Arrow's other looping coasters, and this really helped set Drachen Fire
apart from anything Arrow had ever built. For the support structure, Arrow
subcontracted that work to a local structural engineering firm,
just as they always had. At the time, Arrow did not do
their own structural engineering. John A. Martin Associates had
done the support design for several of Arrow's coasters and took on
the Drachen Fire project. Lo and behold, Alan Schilke -- who would go
on to become a legendary coaster designer -- worked at John A. Martin and helped design
Drachen Fire's structure as a consultant. This was ironic because Alan Schilke had
previously applied to work at Arrow as a Junior Engineer, but Arrow wasn't impressed
with Alan's lettering abilities when it came to drafting plans. Yet somehow, he still
ended up working for Arrow anyway. Arrow would later hire Alan to work
directly for them in 1994, where he went on to become Arrow's director of
engineering, and later created X, another coaster that will be
covered in this video series. Construction of Drachen Fire
would begin in the fall of 1991, as work crews dug and poured the ride's concrete
foundations around the 5 acre (2 ha) site. This was followed by assembly of the ride's
silver support structure, which featured no lattice structure and only steel support tubes.
Well, except for one support on the mid-course brake run that contained service stairs.
The lift hill even featured an inclined column design, where the support tubes were
built at angles with several A-frame supports rising from the same concrete foundations,
giving the structure an accordion look. This certainly gave the ride a more free-floating
appearance, just as the park desired. Arrow had even beat B&M to this support design,
since Kumba was B&M's first coaster to feature an inclined column design, but
it opened one year after Drachen Fire. Now of course, B&M's take was more elegant
and more of a true inclined column design than Arrow's more industrial take where the
A-frames still connected to one another laterally. Electric-blue track would begin arriving
to the job site and was erected atop the steel support structure. Unlike the
new support styling, this track was the same design that Arrow had been using for decades,
with crossties that were still filled with welds. But as an upgrade to something like
Loch Ness Monster, the track was manufactured with thicker crossties that were
consistently dense across all the ride's track. As requested, Arrow delivered a new
generation of their looping coaster trains. These new fire-red trains were much more
minimal, aerodynamic, and sleek compared to Arrow's boxier legacy looping coaster trains.
They even featured wraparound bucket seating that better enclosed each rider's body.
Altogether, the new design provided a more open feel that gave riders a
fantastic view in every direction. For reference, these are the same trains used on
Canyon Blaster at Adventure Dome in Las Vegas. Throughout the construction process,
Busch Gardens heavily marketed Drachen Fire and apparently it was the park's largest
promotional campaign in over a decade dating back to Loch Ness Monster in 1978. The ride's main tagline was, quote
"Feel the Heat". Construction of the new ride would
continue smoothly as work progressed towards the grand opening on April 4th, 1992.
The park paid a lot of attention to detail, to the point that with Drachen Fire being
located behind Big Bad Wolf's first portion, where trains passed through a German village,
the park actually rebuilt a portion of the original village set as the backside of
several buildings were only 2D facades. With this portion of ride now visible to
guests walking the path to Drachen Fire, the 2D rear-facing ends of these buildings
were reconstructed with 3D facades making them look more realistic. Due to Drachen Fire opening in the early
spring rather than in June like Big Bad Wolf and Loch Ness Monster had, there were
fears the coaster could valley during testing. This means the cold weather would cause trains
to lose speed faster through the layout, and possibly lead to a scenario where a train doesn't
have enough speed to climb over a hill, causing it to roll backwards and then valley back and forth
between the two hills until coming to a stop. To counteract this, heaters were installed
at both the top of the lift hill, on the brake run before the station, and
I believe on the mid-course brake run. The heaters helped heat the wheels as
well as the grease within the wheels which would allow them to spin more freely
and prevent the possibility of a valley. This must have worked well enough, as Drachen Fire
began testing and its 60-foot-long (18 m) trains began cycling the circuit over and
over again. The ride also featured a state-of-the-art control system
that was one of Arrow's best yet, something I'll go more into
detail on later in this video. On Friday, April 3rd, 1992, a special preview
was held and members of the media and ACE, as well as various VIPs and high school students
got to experience Drachen Fire before the public. On this first day of operation, reviews seemed to be favorable of the
new intense and breath-taking attraction. RIDER 1: Well, I think the Drachen Fire
is an outstanding coaster. It certainly is one of the most
intense I've ever been on. All these unusual elements on here.
The batwing, the cutback -- it is outstanding. RIDER 2: This is spectacular.
This is wild. This is wonderful. We like rides intense, at least I do.
Rides that never let you catch your breath. Rides that are full, gonzo, push the envelope. RIDER 3: Incredible. It was fast, it was
high, it was quick, it was- it was everything! But unfortunately, this initial
reception wouldn't last. The problem was that even with all the new design
and build innovations, Drachen Fire was rough. Just watch rider's heads on this
reverse POV from that preview day. The ride's official opening day
wouldn't go very smoothly either. The next day on Saturday April 4th, 1992,
Drachen Fire threw some sort of tantrum and did not open on time. The park
had hired famous comedian, Dana Carvey, to officiate the ride's opening ceremonies.
Dana Carvey -- who you might know from Wayne's World -- considered himself
a roller coaster enthusiast and agreed to officiate the ride for free as long
as he got to be the first public rider. While mechanics and electricians scrambled
to get Drachen Fire in a working order, Dana Carvey gave an impromptu standup comedy
routine from the top of the Festhaus stairs, where he impersonated Arnold Schwarzenegger
and tried to distract the massive crowd eager to ride the new coaster.
The story goes that Drachen Fire would not open before Carvey had to
leave town, and he didn't get to ride. Drachen Fire would make its grand
debut sometime shortly after this where it drew a colossal crowd as expected.
Thanks to three-train operations and Arrow's wonderful ride programming, Drachen Fire
would begin delivering thrills to thousands and thousands
of riders like clockwork. The coaster began with a
small drop out of the station into a small banked left turnaround
that led into the 150 foot (46 m) tall lift hill. After a quick climb to the top, riders descended
a 50 foot (15 m) drop and entered the wraparound corkscrew,
which inverted riders high in the air, and led to a curving downward 145 foot (44 m)
drop all the way to ground level where the train hit its
top speed of 60 mph (97 km/h). The train unbanked from the drop and
rose into the ride's first camelback hump that exerted a perfect moment of zero
gravity sustained across the entire hill. The train descended towards the ground and
roared into Arrow's first ever batwing, which you probably know as a cobra roll
but that's what Arrow called the element. Riders ascended a half vertical loop
into a half corkscrew at the top, which banked into another half corkscrew
and then down another half vertical loop taking the train back to ground level. This led into a flat section of track
as the train banked to the left and then ascended an upward left-hand
turnaround into the mid-course brake run. The brakes here would slow the train down
as it got ready to enter the second half. Next was a diving drop to the right,
followed by a quick snap to the left as the train raced through a diving corkscrew.
The counterclockwise rotation of the corkscrew led into a quick left turn as
the train continued to descend. Following was the new cutback element, where
the train ascended a large half corkscrew, then stalled upside down for a second, and
then descended another half corkscrew that spit the train out in the opposite
direction it entered the inversion. Next was a gentle right turn that angled
the track underneath the diving corkscrew. After dropping back to ground level,
the track quickly unbanked, sending riders through another
counterclockwise corkscrew. The rotation of the corkscrew continued
into a counterclockwise fast-paced helix that started with an ascend, and
then a quick descend back to ground. After completing the helix, the train ascended
a gentle hill, followed by a curving drop to the right which led into a curving leap
into the final brake run, ending the ride. But as I mentioned earlier, the problem from
day one was that Drachen Fire was rough. So even with its cool layout, that
was probabably ahead of its time, that featured good pacing and an overall intense
experience, the track profiling was jarring and would cause riders to bash their heads
or necks on the over-the-shoulder restraints. On Saturday April 13th, just a
week after the ride had opened, three young women were taken to a Williamsburg
hospital following their rides on Drachen Fire. Two of the women had ridden together, and the
third rider was aboard another cycle of the coaster. All three complained of neck pain
following their ride. David Conrod, a spokesman for Busch Gardens, said the incidents were not caused by any
malfunction in the new roller coaster and that Drachen Fire had already carried
over 25,000 passengers since opening. So pretty much Drachen Fire had no operational
issues, but the ride was just rough in nature. Word would begin spreading about
how rough Drachen Fire was, and this quickly hurt the coaster's reputation.
I hear that the ride remained quite popular in its opening year, and attracted a
healthy crowd, but each year afterwards, the ride grew less and less popular.
To help improve the experience, the park banned earrings from being
worn while riding Drachen Fire. Riders were allegedly asked to remove
all clip-on earrings before riding and had to keep their heads firmly pressed
against their headrests during the ride. In 1995, David Ordonio, a Drachen Fire
survivor from Maryland, attempted to sue Busch Gardens, Arrow Dynamics, and
William N. Carlson -- who was a technical consultant -- for 7 million US dollars,
which was more than what Busch Gardens had paid to build Drachen Fire
in the first place. This was because he had, quote "sustained
grievous injury as a rider on Drachen Fire". He filed the lawsuit almost two years
after the date his alleged injury happened. So I'd assume that his injury took place in 1993.
His suit charged that Drachen Fire did not have an adequate passenger restraint system that
prevented violent head and neck movement, and that Busch Gardens knew Drachen Fire
had previously caused injuries and knowingly disregarded such information
as to not decrease the gate revenues. However, I don't believe the lawsuit was
ever officially served to Busch Gardens. So why exactly was Drachen Fire so rough?
Unlike Arrow's older roller coasters that were designed by hand, Drachen Fire's track layout
was designed using CAD, which allowed the ride's designers and engineers to calculate
and predict the speeds and G-forces exerted at each location of track more accurately. Drachen Fire also featured a
new generation ride vehicle. So why wasn't Drachen Fire as smooth as a
B&M coaster that was also designed using CAD? Well, even though Arrow used
CAD to design Drachen Fire, the problem was that the company had
stuck to many of their outdated design methods. In my Problematic Roller Coasters video on Loch
Ness Monster, I detailed how Arrow's coasters were built using straight lines and circles.
The more proper name for this design method is Tangent Radius Design. It means
that the track of a roller coaster either follows a tangent -- so a straight line -- or a
curve with a consistent radius -- so a circle. A curve applies to any turn to the left or right,
the pull-in of a drop as it grows steeper, and the curve of a valley between two hills.
Each of these curves would have its own unique radius, but the radius through each
individual curve was consistent the entire way through, from start to finish. For example, the first drop of Loch Ness Monster
begins with a curve with constant radius that pitches the track from a
0-degree slope to a 55-degree slope, then straight track as the track descends
at a constant 55-degree slope, and then another curve with constant radius that pitches
the track from a 55-degree slope back to 0. More modern roller coasters, like the ones that
B&M build, do not utilize Tangent Radius Design, and feature something called Compounding Curves.
So rather than each curve following a consistent radius, the radius of each
curve is continuously changing. This is how we get something
like a parabolic airtime hill where the start and finish of a hill's peak
are wider to account for higher speed, and the very peak of the hill features a smaller
radius since the train is traveling slower. This allows for a consistent amount
of airtime for riders in the middle cars. The same also happens during a
valley between two hills, and the very bottom of the curve will be wider to
account for the train's higher speeds, which means a consistent number of G-forces are
applied throughout the curve from start to finish. But Arrow's coasters utilized Tangent
Radius Design because it was easier to calculate this by hand, and mainly due to
track fabrication limitations that required Arrow's track fabricators to bend track by hand. So, if Arrow needed a section of track to feature
a 30 foot (9m) radius, they'd bend the track and hold a wooden board that represented a
30 foot (9m) radius against the bent steel. If the track matched the board,
the piece was ready to go. Or if the track didn't match, fabricators would
heat the track back up and bend it further. Whereas today's roller coasters are fabricated
almost entirely with the use of computers and automated heavy machinery that allow for
curves to feature ever changing radiuses. To calculate the radius of a curve, Arrow
most likely used the formula for Centripetal Acceleration,
otherwise known as G-force. The formula is Centripetal Acceleration
equals Velocity squared divided by Radius. Designers would mostly likely have
a desired Centripetal Acceleration, or G-force, they'd want a curve to achieve. With Loch Ness Monster, it's advertised that
the ride exerts a max of three-and-a-half G's. So, let's assume that occurs at
the bottom of the first drop. To make this happen, designers would first
use physics equations to accurately estimate the speed of trains at the bottom of the
first drop based on the change in height. Loch Ness Monster reaches 60 mph (97km/h)
on its first drop which is 88 ft/s (27m/s). In our equation, I will plug in
88 ft/s (27m/s) for velocity. 3.5 G's means three-and-a-half
times the acceleration of gravity, which in imperial units is
32.174 ft/s^2 (9.81m/s^2). Three and a half times that is
112.609 ft/s^2 (34.335m/s^2), so I'll plug that for our equation
for Centripetal Acceleration. We now solve for the unknown radius,
which ends up being 68.77 feet (21.23m). In the case of bending track rails by hand,
I'm certain the radius would be rounded to the next whole number,
which just so happens to be 69 feet, very nice. Hypothetically, track fabricators
would then bend the track of this section to match the necessary 69-foot (22m) radius. So, this is how Loch Ness Monster
was designed and built in 1978, and it was great because it allowed
for the creation of a large steel coaster even with the technological
limitations of that time period. But it does mean that Loch Ness Monster
is not the smoothest, as transitioning from a
continuous radius to another radius, or from a radius to a straight
line, or vice versa, causes jerk. Jerk is rapid changes in acceleration, and it
quite literally causes a rider's body to jerk as the train rides through a transition.
This is because the transition between a curve or straight track needs to begin
and end gradually to spread the change in acceleration over a longer period of track,
but consistent radiuses do not allow for that. On Loch Ness Monster, that is okay
because most of the ride is pretty tame. And even during the ride's faster and
more intense moments, the track follows a relatively simple path without quick twists
or turns which keeps it relatively smooth. But for Drachen Fire, it appears that Arrow
continued to use Tangent Radius Design, even if the ride was designed with CAD.
So, with Drachen Fire featuring a more fast-paced and intense track layout,
the jerking during the ride's many transitions were far more prominent, like
this turn into the mid-course brake run. Rather than this turn featuring a smooth
curve with an ever-changing radius to account for changes in angle or speed, it seems
to consist of several curves hastily put together. First is the lower part of the turn where the
track turns left but doesn't climb upward, which begins with a jerk as the
train transitions from straight track into the curve's consistent radius. Then the curve suddenly pitches upward, causing a jerk as the ascent grows steeper,
and because this jerk happens sideways, it throws riders' heads side to side
against the over-the-shoulder restraint. On top of Drachen Fire's
sudden changes in acceleration, the coaster didn't feature heartlining like
the majority of Arrow's other coasters. Heartlining is where the rotation of track,
say as it banks to the right or left, places a rider's heart -- or really
their chest -- at the center of rotation. This is important because a rider's
chest is their center of mass. More modern roller coasters, like the
ones that B&M build, feature heartlining, and it means that the track of a coaster
rotates around your center of mass. This reduces the lateral forces exerted on
riders and helps avoid something called headbanging, where rider's heads or necks bash
against their over-the-shoulder restraints. So, with Drachen Fire lacking heartlining,
riders would experience a large amount of neck or head bashing as the track rotated left or
right, as riders were rotating around the track rather than the track rotating around the riders.
And keep in mind that changes in banking occurred mainly during transitions, where the ride's
Tangent Radius Design applied rapid changes in acceleration between different curves.
Ultimately, it was a recipe for disaster, and with Drachen Fire featuring
several rapid-fire transitions with changes in banking, rider's heads went flying.
Whereas the older Loch Ness Monster wasn't nearly as rough because it was a gentler coaster
with less fast-paced transitions and turns. Arrow wouldn't begin using heartlining in
their track design until later in the 1990s. For the coasters Arrow built before
Drachen Fire, the company did not implement heartlining into their track designs because it
was most likely harder to design for this by hand, and because designers were
more concerned about the forces that trains would exert on the track
and structure and less so the riders. This was more acceptable in the 1970s when
Arrow's coasters weren't as large and intense, and also because manufacturing and
material limitations of the time meant it was harder and much more expensive to
build stronger track and support structures. But as time continued, Arrow stuck really
hard to their obsolete design practices. While designing Drachen Fire, Arrow still
stuck to their design method where they used one of the coaster's two running
rails as the design reference point. This means that all calculated G-forces and
changes in acceleration were based off a point where the wheels rode the track, a good
distance away from a rider's center of mass. Arrow would essentially design one rail of
the coaster and have the other rail follow it. On turns, Arrow would use the low rail,
which was the inside rail of the turn as the reference point, and the high rail,
or outside rail, was designed to follow it based on the 3 foot (0.9m) width of the track.
This design method was great during the 1970s, as it gave designers an accurate gauge
of the forces that trains would exert on their track and structure, just as
the designers wanted to calculate, as the reference point they were using is
literally where a train applies forces. But as I just mentioned, it meant the
reference point was a good distance away from a rider's center of mass.
Whereas to achieve a heartline design, the design reference point must be that
of the average chest level of riders. G-forces and acceleration would be calculated
against this reference point, and the ride's track would have to rotate around this reference point.
This is why rides designed using heartlining are far smoother than an Arrow coaster designed
around its low rail as a reference point, as heartlined coasters are designed
to keep the rider comfortable, whereas low-rail coasters are moreso designed to
keep the trains, track, and structure happy. Of course, today's heartlined coasters keep
their trains, track, and structure happy as well as the riders, because better design,
manufacturing, and material choices are available to keep the trains and structure
strong enough to account for heartlining. Another great thing with a heartline design
is that when track banks from left to right, or vice versa, the design
reference point does not change. So, as you ride through such a transition,
the forces applied to a rider's center of mass are smoothly accounted for
through the entire transition. But with Arrow's low-rail design, a transition
like this means the opposite rail suddenly becomes the new low rail, which means the new low
rail becomes the new design reference point. So, in such a transition, the reference point
suddenly shifts 3 feet (0.9 m) to the opposite rail. Let's take this right-hand turn on
Drachen Fire following the cutback. Arrow's point of reference that this turn
was designed around was the low rail here, which is on the inside of the turn.
The high rail, or the outside rail on this turn was designed to
simply follow the inside rail. As we continue to the transition from this
right-hand turn into the counterclockwise corkscrew, the track unbanks and now the
opposite rail becomes the point of reference. So now the track is being designed
based on the G-forces and changes in acceleration being applied here.
But in doing so, the point of reference suddenly switches 3 feet (0.9m) to the left, since
we swapped which rail was the reference point. Add in the fact that this shifting reference point
is lower than where the forces are applied to riders, and it pretty much instantly results
in a rough and uncomfortable transition. So, while Arrow certainly evolved from
hand drafting designs to doing them with CAD for Drachen Fire, they really needed to
improve the way they designed their coasters, especially as their coasters
grew larger and more intense. Drachen Fire's new trains also weren't
much of a leap forward when it came to their abilities to track a circuit.
While technically a new-generation vehicle, the trains were only new in
their car bodies and seating. The cars' steel frame and chassis, as well
as the wheel assemblies underneath each car, were identical or nearly identical to
Arrow's original looping coaster trains, and so were the restraints that secured riders. So, the trains were functionally the
same as Loch Ness Monster's trains. They featured a trailered design where
each car had one axle at the front, and the rear of each car was supported
by the axle of the car behind it. Which is why the trains feature a dummy
axle at the rear, which acts similarly to a zero-car on B&M's trains, just that
it's at the back of the train instead. The axles of each car were able to steer to
the left and right thanks to a center spindle, which was a large, machined pin
that held the axle to the chassis. The different wheel assembles were then
individually capable of pitching up and down. Arrow would become infamous for pushing
their train designs to their limits. When the company unveiled Magnum XL-200 at Cedar
Point in 1989 -- the world's first roller coaster to top 200 feet (61m) in height -- its trains
were essentially no different than what Arrow had used on their smaller mine-train
coasters. This caused a lot of issues that I go much more into detail on in my
Problematic Coasters video on Magnum. Well, Drachen Fire also pushed
its trains to their limit. The ride would occasionally break center spindle
pins, probably due to the large number of forces placed on them by the wheels and axles.
Meanwhile in Loch Ness Monster's 45 years of operation, the coaster has
never broken a center spindle once. And a lot of that probably has to do with the fact
that the train was essentially the same as Loch Ness Monster's and that Drachen Fire
applied far more forces on its trains, whereas a B&M train could probably
handle those forces without any issue. Part of the problem may have been due to the
gaps between wheels and the running rails, with the side-running guidewheels and
under-running upstop wheels both having gaps between them and the running rails.
Rides like Drachen Fire featured no bushings or springs in their wheel assemblies, meaning
the wheels were all fixed in their locations. So, in order to ride around something like a turn,
a gap was necessary so that the wheel assembly wouldn't get jammed up due to a build in pressure.
But it can lead to something called axle hunt, where an axle bounces back and forth between the
running rails which can increase the roughness of a coaster, and I'd imagine it places more
forces on the axle and its connecting components, like the center spindle that accounts
for left and right pitching of each axle. But among all these issues, the new trains
at least featured cool red runner lights along the sides of each car.
Each of these were powered by moped batteries mounted underneath each car.
I unfortunately don't know of any photos or videos of Drachen Fire operating at night, but
I hear that it was quite a cool visual effect. To help alleviate the coaster's roughness,
Busch Gardens had Drachen Fire heavily modified for the 1995 season.
The major change was that the diving corkscrew immediately off the mid-course
brake run was removed, and the drop itself off the mid-course was heavily modified.
This section was replaced with a long and shallow descent towards the cut-back, along with some
trim brakes that artificially removed the speed normally lost during the diving corkscrew. [sound of steel rolling on steel] This alteration meant the removal of the sharp snap
both into and exiting the diving corkscrew. I hear this helped a good amount, but
that the coaster still featured other moments that were even rougher, such as
the turn into the mid-course brake run, or the sharp transition into
the ride's last corkscrew. Another modification was the addition of
some sort of cross-bracing in the track of the upper portion of the batwing.
It appears this was done for the 1996 season as this was the batwing in 1995, and this was the batwing in 1996. On both ends of the element, a large amount
of the upper half loop and half corkscrew were unsupported, which would cause the
track to sway and bend by a large amount. The amount of unsupported track was so long
that the entire 60-foot-long (18m) train would fit within the unsupported spans
of track with more room to spare. This wasn't the first time Arrow's track had to
be strengthened after a coaster had been built. It was common for their coasters to
require additional crossties that connect the running rails to the large center spine.
Or on the mega-looping coasters that Arrow had built for Six Flags, the tops of every single
vertical loop received rigid reinforcement that added additional connections between each
crosstie, as well as diagonal connections between the crossties and center spine.
But the additional cross-bracing added to Drachen Fire's batwing appears different
than that of the Six Flags mega-loopers. Unfortunately, there aren't many
high-resolution images of Drachen Fire's bracing, but each cross-brace
appears to feature some sort of spring, so the cross-bracing may have acted as
a shock absorber that helped absorb the sway of the unsupported track spans rather
than try to prevent any sway completely. Drachen Fire also featured Arrow's
classic anti-rollback system, which is what prevents a train from rolling
backwards down the lift hill for any reason. On the track of the lift hill was
a steel rack with asymmetric teeth. Metal pawls below the train -- or
anti-rollback dogs -- slide between the asymmetric teeth of
the rack while traveling forward. [clacking loudly] If a train stops on the lift hill, the
pawls lock into the asymmetric teeth, as they cannot slide over them
in the backwards direction. This holds the train in place and prevents
it from rolling backwards down the lift hill. But Arrow's anti-rollback
system generated a lot of noise. [clacking even more loudly] Now, I personally love this lift noise
and there's nothing that beats the sound of an Arrow coaster climbing its lift hill.
But the problem was that houses were nearby Drachen Fire's lift hill in the Kingsmill
residential area that Anheuser-Busch had built. Early in the morning before each day of
operation, Drachen Fire would be tested to get its green tag for the day. This would
allow the coaster to open up for riders. But the loud noise of the anti-rollbacks
so early in the morning was quite disturbing for nearby residents.
From 1992 to I believe roughly 1995, Drachen Fire operated with its
original Arrow anti-rollback system. And then I believe in 1996, the ride started
running a silent anti-rollback system. Compare this video from 1995 where
the anti-rollbacks are audible... [more distant clacky-clack] To this video from 1996 where the
train quietly climbs the lift hill... [smooth steel coaster sound] To accomplish this, a new system was added like
what Intamin uses on their roller coasters, where a wheel underneath the train would
roll against a strip on the lift hill, which would power an electromagnet
to keep the pawls elevated. This way, pawls wouldn't clank
against the teeth of the steel rack. But if the rate of ascent slowed too much or the
train stopped, the electromagnet would lose power and the pawl would fall back into position
to engage the steel rack, preventing the train from rolling backwards down the lift hill.
In these photos from 1996, notice the grey strip of steel added next to the anti-rollback teeth.
This is where the wheel of the new silent anti-rollback system would roll against.
Compare this to how the anti-rollback teeth used to look, where no steel strip
is present next to the rollback teeth. But amongst all the ride's issues, the ride did
have one saving grace, and that was its stellar control system and overall rider capacity.
In my last video on Loch Ness Monster, I discussed the difference between
an older Relay Logic control system, which Loch Ness Monster opened with, and newer
PLC systems, or Programmable Logic Controllers. Relay Logic basically consists of switches
around a ride's track that turn on or off certain electrical circuits.
Where PLCs are specialized computers that automate processes by
receiving data through various inputs, making decisions based on the collected data, and
then producing outputs based on its decisions. Well, Drachen Fire opened right away
with a state-of-the-art dual-processor Allen Bradley PLC system that Arrow had been
perfecting over the years, as the same system had also been used on Great American
Scream Machine at Six Flags Great Adventure, and Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
I believe these systems were the next generation of the single-processor Westinghouse PLC system
used on Shockwave at Six Flags Great America. So no, Drachen Fire did not feature
a rip-off of B&M's control system, and it worked exceptionally well. Arrow had always
built high-capacity, and rather reliable rides, and Drachen Fire was the company's
magnum opus from a controls standpoint. Drachen Fire's control system was
designed and programmed by Arrow's then Controls Engineer, Kevin
Russell. In an interview with ACE, Kevin Russell described Drachen Fire's
control system as his pinnacle work. Among many things, the PLC on Drachen Fire
controlled the ride's block zone system. For those of you who are unfamiliar, a block zone is a section of ride that
only one train may occupy. At the end of a block zone is a method to stop a train
in case the block zone ahead is still occupied. This is the safety system that prevents roller
coaster trains from colliding with one another. These were the block zones of Drachen Fire: First was the station. Then A-Block, which was the ride's main lift hill. Followed by B-Block, which ran
from the crest of the lift hill to the mid-course brake run after the batwing. Next was C-Block, which was from
the end of the mid-course brake run to the safety brake run at the end of the ride. And last was D-Block, which was the
ready brake right before the station. So, a total of five block zones
that allowed Drachen Fire to comfortably operate its three 28-passenger trains. Unlike Loch Ness Monster, Drachen Fire
featured a longer final brake run with enough block zones that allowed the ride
to stack two trains on the final brake run, which greatly reduced the chance of a
train stopping mid-ride and the entire attraction cascading because the smallest
of a hold-up occurred in the load station. And unlike earlier Arrow coasters that relied
on downward-sloped track on the brake run and station to advance trains forward using
gravity, Drachen Fire featured vertically-mounted tire drives in the ready brakes and load
station that quickly advanced trains forward. The ride also featured mini-blocks
between D-Block and the load station, which allowed for the train in D-Block to
advance into the station simultaneously as the train ahead dispatched from the station.
This, combined with the tire drives, cut down the amount of idle time between
when a train dispatched from the station to when the next train parked, which
increased the amount of time operators had to actually unload and load each train.
All together, this allowed operating crews at Drachen Fire to actually achieve and
exceed its published theoretical capacity of 2,000 riders per hour. Whereas a large majority of roller coasters ever built never
meet their theoretical capacities. To achieve at least 2,000 riders per hour,
it means that at least 72 trains need to be dispatched from the station
at a rate of one dispatch every 50 seconds. The main lift hill was also rather quick, which
I'm sure made the 50-second interval possible, as trains could dispatch from the station
as soon as the train ahead passed the B-Block enter proximity sensor located here.
This was the location where gravity took over as trains came off the lift hill and when trains
had fully transitioned from A-Block into B-Block. But unfortunately, the ride's extravagant control
system and high capacity really meant nothing if there was no one lining up to ride Drachen Fire,
and over time that's what began to happen. Now, there were certainly many coaster
enthusiasts who loved Drachen Fire -- I probably would have been one of them -- but most of the
general public stayed away from Drachen Fire. Towards the end of Drachen Fire's career, it
was very easy to remain aboard the coaster for dozens of rides in a row because
no one was waiting in line for it. The ride just had that bad of a reputation.
Park spokeswoman Deborah DeMarco made a statement that Drachen Fire was the least
popular of the park's major coasters. In 1997 Busch Gardens would open Alpengeist, a
massive inverted roller coaster built by B&M. Alpengeist smoothly traversed its track --
well, maybe except for its powerful cobra roll -- which further set the tone for
just how rough and terrible Drachen Fire was. In July of 1998, a 43-year-old man suffered
a brain injury called an acute subdural hematoma while riding Drachen Fire.
Coincidentally, Busch Gardens would close down Drachen Fire indefinitely in
July of 1998, and the ride never reopened. It simply sat abandoned in the very
back of the park while Alpengeist and the new Apollo's Chariot, a B&M
hypercoaster introduced at the park in 1999, carried thrill-seekers into the 21st century.
The park further cited that Drachen Fire's declining popularity and growing maintenance
costs were the reason for the closure. With the ride sitting closed, rumors in early
1999 began circulating that Busch Gardens might be attempting to further modify
Drachen Fire in an attempt to make it smoother. But this never came to be. And it's a
real shame that modifications were never made, as Arrow had already
began making smoother looping coasters. In 1996, Arrow opened a coaster by
the name of Roller Coaster in Kuwait. The ride featured a radically different
design profile and appeared to feature a much smoother track design.
I believe it was at this point when Alan Schilke got involved with Arrow's
track designs, and him and other engineers incorporated Force Vector Design, Compounding
Curves, and heartlining into Arrow's coasters. Arrow would introduce Road Runner Express
at Six Flags Fiesta Texas in 1997, which is a very smooth and enjoyable
mine train roller coaster, and then the famous Tennessee Tornado at
Dollywood in 1999, a large, smooth, and enjoyable Arrow looping coaster. With
Arrow's more modern method of designing and building their roller coasters, it may
have been possible for them to renovate Drachen Fire with an altered track profiling
that may have increased its smoothness. But it's unknown if talks between
Busch Gardens and Arrow ever occurred. It would have also been great to see Drachen Fire's
restraints replaced with a vest-style restraint that we've seen introduced on roller coasters
built by the Dutch manufacturer Vekoma. Like Arrow's coasters, Vekoma --
who was essentially an offshoot of Arrow -- had built many rough roller
coasters themselves and many parks have purchased new trains from Vekoma
with these new vest restraints. Vest restraints more tightly
secure a rider's upper body, which prevents it from sliding around as much.
And most importantly, the vests eliminate the possibility of headbanging. Vest restraints
may have meant a track reprofiling wouldn't have been necessary to make
Drachen Fire more comfortable and enjoyable. And if the park was feeling really courageous,
lap bars might have been even cooler. In August of 1999, it was found that Busch
Gardens had listed Drachen Fire for sale. From what I've heard, an interested buyer did
approach the park about acquiring the coaster. But the coaster's speed issues,
that I talked about earlier, did not help sway this interested party. I believe that the heaters the park had
installed on the lift hill and D-Block during the coaster's initial testing
in 1992 had long since been removed, and they probably would have been
useful while selling the coaster. When the park went to cycle Drachen Fire
for the interested buyer, a train valleyed on the ascent into the mid-course brake run.
This was the location that Drachen Fire was sensitive to valleying at when
operating in cold or windy weather. While this hill is a good amount lower
than the batwing, the top of the hill is essentially flat, meaning the train needs
more energy to fully ride up the hill. After the train valleyed, a team of
maintenance members began winching the train back up the incline.
But this was enough to scare away the potential buyer, and the coaster
never sold to a theme park operator. In 2002, after sitting
closed for over three years, Drachen Fire was finally dismantled,
and the coaster's steel was recycled. Ever since, Drachen Fire's plot of land
has remained empty and abandoned. The park did keep the original station and
storage buildings in place, and who knows, maybe they will be used on another
coaster or attraction in the near future. Since closing Drachen Fire, Busch Gardens
has opened six new roller coasters with a seventh on the way, and none of them were
placed in Drachen Fire's original location. As of now, the current rumors suggest
a new hybrid roller coaster by Rocky Mountain Construction, or RMC,
similar to Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa, may be built in Drachen Fire's old spot. That'll certainly be interesting
to see if that becomes true. And if something is ever built in this location,
it would be awesome to see some sort of nod given to Drachen Fire, whether that be through the
new attraction's name, theme, or color scheme. But if something is ever built, whatever
this ride is, it'll have to be quiet! Among the complaints Drachen Fire used to
receive about its loud anti-rollback system, even the screams of riders could
be disturbing to nearby residents. And this may be why the park has never
built anything in its former location, not because the location was
too far off the beaten path. So, there you have it, the story of
the oh so problematic Drachen Fire, a roller coaster that from day one was
100 percent an Arrow roller coaster designed by Ron Toomer
and it was not Arrow's attempt at picking up where B&M had left off. I hope you enjoyed this video
and comment down below if you ever got the chance to ride Drachen Fire
and what you thought of it. Please be sure to like the video if you enjoyed it and subscribe to the channel to
see more videos like this one. All right, thanks for watching everyone.
I'll catch you guys in the next one. Peace. ♩ ♫ ◢ Captioned by: Pineapples Foster Media Services ◣
⦿ pineapples.foster@gmail.com ⦿
