Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, Calif., Opens $16 Million Roller Coaster
Dec. 7–Magic Mountain offers Batman the Ride. Great America in Santa Clara features Top Gun. And starting today, Knott’s Berry Farm adds the Silver Bullet — the longest, fastest and tallest suspended coaster in the West.
Silver Bullet is the fourth new attraction at Knott’s this year, but it is by far the most tantalizing with an unusual suspended design that has riders sitting under the track.
They hold on tight, too, because it’s faster than any coaster on the West Coast with maximum speeds of 55 mph. It’s also longer than the others, with 3,125 feet of track, and the tallest, with a peak height of 146 feet.
Knott’s has been developing the $16 million coaster for more than a year and brings it online in time for the holiday rush. The other major theme parks in Southern California introduced their flashy new attractions last spring.
Knott’s has been adding big thrill rides since 1997, when Cedar Fair bought the theme park from the family that started it all with chicken dinners and a ghost town. The Western theme remains intact, and you can still pan for gold or take small children to Camp Snoopy, but with seven roller coasters, Knott’s has solidified its niche as a thrill-seekers’ park.
Jack Falfas, the dogged general manager who has been leading the transformation, has wanted a suspended coaster in his park for years. When the capital came through, he called on the Swiss design firm Bolliger & Mabillard — B&M — to build it.
Bob Mampe, a B&M project manager who worked on Silver Bullet, talked about the coaster’s safety features and the art of designing roller coasters.
QUESTION: How hard was it to fit this jumbo coaster into an existing theme park?
ANSWER: We’re a custom-design roller-coaster firm, so every one we build has to be created to go into what’s already there. The challenge with this one was to go across and on top of and around things. We had to carefully place the foundations where it would not damage or destroy the existing park — power lines, sewer lines, all that. You have to do all the on-site work to check where those things are, then fit the foundations and the track in the park.
It’s a spatial three-dimensional problem, and in the early ’90s you could never have done this. We didn’t have the sophisticated software we have today. It’s a progression type of thing. Once we get the site layout and the topography, we to try to steer the (coaster) in and around the buildings.
You’ve seen those computer games for kids that let them design roller coasters? That’s an offshoot of the custom software we designed.
Q: Silver Bullet has a vertical loop of 105 feet. How do you design that and know it’s safe?
A: It’s similar to any other piece of track we build. You take a trajectory line and draw it though space (on software), come up with a layout and then steer that through space with all the loops. You start with a conceptual idea and then the software feeds us information that gives us parameters. We set the size and dimensions and curves, all dictated by the parameters.
We know it’s safe because it fits within the design parameters. Our human input is all about where we want it to go and then it tells us where we can go.
Q: What were some of the challenges building this coaster?
A: Knott’s brought in the contractors to do the installation, and we helped them with challenges that arose. You don’t design something that they can’t perform. For instance, there’s a lagoon there. We had to fill it all in with dirt so we could drive the crane over it to place the track.
Then you had to take all the dirt out of the lagoon again and refill it.
We also had to work at night. The park is open during the day and the stagecoach runs right by there, so we could do a little in the evening but most of it was at night. There were only a few days in the whole project that the stagecoach was shut down. They used one of those huge cranes that could fold down when they weren’t working. It’s a huge challenge for Knott’s to keep the place going while they did the work.
Q: Is Silver Bullet similar to other suspended coasters you’ve built, such as “Batman the Ride” at Magic Mountain in Valencia?
A: Each one is design-specific for one park with all the elements that they want and need. This one has a much larger loop and a cobra roll.
Each element is specifically designed for that layout. For instance, you have a cobra roll, but there is an entrance speed and exit speed for that roll on each coaster, depending on each one’s size and dimensions. So it might be similar with some of the same shapes, but it’s a different experience when you ride it.
What’s really cool about being in the roller-coaster business is you have an idea about how to do something, like going from a loop to a zero-G roll (zero gravity with a feeling of total weightlessness) to a cobra roll — which is absolutely unique and a lot different than going from a loop to a zero-G roll to another loop — and then you see if you can make it happen.
It’s totally disorienting and fun for the rider, and when they get off, they have no clue what just happened. I’m 50 and I still love it.
Q: Silver Bullet’s initial climb is 146 feet. What if it stalls?
A: Coasters have a stopping point on the incline lift. That’s a design stop, and it’s put in there in case, say, there’s ever a power outage, or the loading and unloading takes longer than it’s supposed to. … If that happens, there will be a controlled stop there on the lift, and you would have a stairway there to evacuate if necessary.
This one climbs to the top with a traditional chain conveyor. I’m a purist. I like the chain conveyors. Roller coasters are an art form and part of the art is to (experience the ride) in a free fall. If you use linear induction (motor), it’s a launch. This is traditional. It’s designed to have gravity take you through all those twists and turns and corkscrews.
Q: Safety remains a major concern at theme parks. What can you tell riders that would help them understand the safety designed into this coaster?
A: It has a computerized control system that monitors the position and condition of the two trains at all times. If one goes into the service brake area, it will stop (and stay) out there if another train is still in the station. All those safety checks are built into the system.
Q: It has a rider height requirement of at least 54 inches. What other things should people consider about their size before riding?
A: You need to assess your own physical condition. People might have a debilitating condition, like a heart problem or history of epilepsy that could trigger an attack.
You must be able to fit into the restraint. We’ve tried over the years to include everyone, but we don’t go under 54 inches because if you have to make them for larger and larger folks, it can’t accommodate smaller ones.
It’s impossible to make one size that fits all.
The restraint has a shoulder harness and seat that interlock so you can’t slip out from underneath it. The lap belt is not as much another lock as it is a sizing mechanism to make sure the restraint is the correct size for that person. If you can’t engage the belt, then the person is too large to be safely restrained. That takes the responsibility off the kid (ride operator) standing there arguing with the person who wants to ride but clearly is too large.
Q: Is it tough to be a roller-coaster designer these days?
A: No, as long as you’re honest in design and do your due diligence and work hard at it, it’s an honorable practice. We’ve always been involved in not pushing the envelope on design thrills, instead pushing the envelope on better systems and ensuring that everything is reliable. One of my colleagues once, as he was watching kids as they exited a coaster and they were laughing, he said: “You’re in the smile business.”
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