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Superman: The Ride is a steel roller coaster located in DC Universe at Six Flags New England. It is located towards the back of the park, directly next to the Connecticut River, and is seen as the star attraction at the park. The coaster opened on May 5, 2000 as Superman: Ride of Steel. On May 22, 2009, the ride was re-themed to Bizarro, named after Superman's alternate universe counterpart. In 2016, the ride was re-themed again to Superman: The Ride.

History[]

Superman – Ride of Steel (2000–2008)[]

Prior to the 2000 season, Six Flags New England was known as Riverside Park. Six Flags purchased the park and added their own DC Comics theming. The site that Superman The Ride operates on is the former site of the Riverside Park Speedway. The Speedway was demolished after the 1999 season to make room for a new themed area, DC Super Hero Adventures. As part of the $40 million expansion, the park built Superman: Ride of Steel. Six Flags worked with Swiss manufacturer, Intamin, to build and design the ride a year earlier. The final track piece of Superman was installed on March 27, 2000, about 40 days before opening day. The ride officially opened on May 5, 2000 as the tallest and longest roller coaster on the East Coast of the United States. The entrance and station were themed to Superman with a picture of him and his iconic "S" symbol located above the entrance. The second tunnel also had a mist effect.

Bizarro (2009–2015)[]

Superman: Ride of Steel was re-themed as Bizarro at the start of the 2009 season. Six Flags had to work with the Zoning Board of Appeals to  a permit for the new effects because the ride sits on the Connecticut River floodplain. Although no changes were made to the track layout, a new theme highlighting the Htrae counterpart of Superman, Bizarro, was added. The track was repainted purple with dark blue supports, and multiple special effects were added; including building structures that give riders the impression of speeding through a city, rings in the shape of Bizarro's S shield that the train passes through, and flame effects. The two trains were repainted purple with new on-board audio. Six Flags introduced an "alternate reality game" to market the newly themed ride, depicting Jimmy Olsen's reports of Bizarro attacking. Bizarro opened on May 22, 2009, at the start of Memorial Day weekend. Since the transformation, some of the effects have been removed. The fire effects were removed and moved to the New Texas Giant at Six Flags Over Texas.

Superman: The Ride (2016–present)[]

Supermanlogosfne

The logo of Superman: The Ride

On September 3, 2015, it was announced that Bizarro's theme would be restored to Superman The Ride for the 2016 season. On March 3, 2016, Six Flags announced that the ride would be one of several rides at various Six Flags parks to feature a VR system. Riders have the option of wearing a Samsung Gear VR headset, powered by Oculus to create a 360-degree, 3D experience while riding. It is themed to Superman saving a city from Lex Luthor's Lex Bots who are causing chaos with an anti-gravity ray. This theming also came to the Superman: Krypton Coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Superman - Ride of Steel at Six Flags America. Starting from July 25, 2016, the Virtual Reality experience was offered from 1 p.m. to one hour prior to park  each day. It was announced on February 18, 2017 at ACE New England's Great Nor'Easter event that VR would be removed for the 2017 season.

Experience[]

Queue[]

Guests first pass underneath the entrance sign and head into the locker room. Upon exiting the building, guests make a left turn and climb down the stairs. The queue line starts off with a right turn and a left turn, passing by bushes. There is an extended queue area on the left side with a Superman logo layout. On the right side is The Flash Pass entrance. Passing by several switchbacks are signs depicting Superman's story and powers. There is also a sign depicting Superman's rogues gallery, strangely not including Brainiac. When entering the station building, there is another switchback section. Guests then climb the stairs and board the ride.

Layout[]

After departing from the station, the train climbs the 208-foot (63 m)-tall chain lift hill. To the left of the lift hill is the Connecticut River, which is parallel to much of the coaster. After reaching the top, the train drops 221 feet (67 m) into a fogged headchopper tunnel. The ride reaches its top speed of 77 miles per hour (124 km/h). After the train exits the tunnel, it climbs a second hill at 133 feet (34 m) before dropping down into a 120 degree overbanked turn to the right. Riders then ride through cutouts of buildings and climb the third and fourth major hills. The third hill is where the on-ride photo is taken. After the fourth hill, the train drops through Superman's S shields. Riders crest a small hill, turning right into a clockwise helix, known as the spaghetti bowl. It then jumps over a bunny hill into a counter-clockwise helix. The train makes a right turn drop into a fogged tunnel followed by three bunny hills before banking right into the station, which has a newspaper with the headline "SUPERMAN DEFEATS BIZARRO!"

Characteristics[]

Trains[]

The roller coaster features two fiberglass trains with stadium-style seating. Each train has nine cars with two rows of paired seats per car. When the ride was re-themed in 2009, onboard audio was added to the trains. On each one, the two rear seats of the fifth car have speakers mounted in the headrests of the seats that play a soundtrack. This reduced the capacity of the trains from 36 to 34. Upon reopening following the change, a recording of various film quotes played while the train was in motion, ending with a loop of Bizarro chanting his name. Eventually, the audio track was switched to a compilation of clips of popular music, although the ending portion was kept due to popular demand. The new trains paint scheme was changed from blue and red to purple. Each seat originally had an individual hydraulic T-shaped lap bar restraints, but after an incident in 2004 where a disabled man fell out of the coaster, the restraints now consist of two metal bars on each side.

As of 2016, the audio box was kept, but changed to play John Williams' "Superman March" while ascending the lift hill.

Track[]

The steel track is 5,400 feet (1,600 m) in length and the height of the lift is approximately 208 feet (63 m). The track was originally painted red with blue supports, to fit the theme of Superman. In 2009, after the re-theme to Bizarro, the track was repainted purple while the supports were painted a darker shade of blue. In 2016, the paint scheme of the track and supports was restored to its original colors but using more vibrant tones.

Awards[]

Golden Ticket Awards: Top Steel Roller Coasters
Year 2003 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Position 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 2 2 2 2 3 3 5 4

Gallery[]

Videos[]

Images[]

References[]

External links[]

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