Sky Rider

In addition to the single-rail coasters built by Caripro, a few other single-rail suspended coasters were built by other manufacturers.  They are Pteranodon Flyers at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, Flying Super Saturator at Carowinds, Roller Soaker at Hersheypark, Bat Flyer at Lightwater Valley in Ripon, England, and Canopy Flyer at Universal Studios Singapore.  One dozen single-rail suspended coasters were built between 1997 and 2010, but only three remain in operation: Canopy Flyer, Pteranodon Flyers, and Sky Rider.

I believe that there are several reasons that these coasters were not successful.  Some people have stated that the coasters were simply slow and boring.  I will admit that they weren't the most exciting rides, but there are plenty of companies that have been successful making family coasters.  I think that one of the biggest problems with these rides was their hourly capacity.  Sky Rider was the only coaster of this type that had seating for four passengers in each vehicle.  Every other ride had two seats in each gondola.  Most of the cars were so small that they had room for one adult and one child, but couldn't carry two adults at once.  Additionally, nearly every one of these coasters lacked a block brake on the course, so only one vehicle could operate on the track at once.  This low hourly rider capacity made for some extremely slow-moving waiting queues.  This might have been acceptable for a small park like Skyline, but it was totally unacceptable for large parks.

©2019 Joel A. Rogers.