American Eagle (roller coaster)

American Eagle is a wooden racing roller coaster located at Six Flags Great America theme park in Gurnee, Illinois. It was the first wooden roller coaster designed by Intamin of Switzerland and was built in 1981 by the contracting firm Figley-Wright at a cost of $10 million. While most of the records have since been broken, American Eagle had the longest drop and fastest speeds among wooden roller coasters when it debuted and is still recognized as a top racing coaster in the United States.

The ride is recognized by American Coaster Enthusiasts as a Landmark roller coaster, receiving the honor in 2025.[1]

History

Construction of American Eagle began in June 1980. The attraction was built with approximately 1360000 ft of lumber, 129,720 bolts, and 30,600 lbs of nails. Supports are attached to approximately 2,000 concrete footings that average 1.5 ft in diameter and are 4.5 ft deep. American Eagle was painted with over 9,000 gal of white paint and took over 20,000 man hours to build.[2] American Eagle was designed by Curtis D. Summers, James Figley, and Leonard Wright. Marriott originally contacted John C. Allen to design the coaster, but he did not want to attempt it.

Ride experience

Queue

The queue area of the ride is located to the right of the Kidzopolis section of the park. Prior to 2006, guests would first walk through a large tent – originally used for a circus in the late 1970s – before reaching the queue.[9] Approaching the station, the queue line splits, allowing guests to choose between riding the "Red Side" (left) and the "Blue Side" (right). Both sides offer similar ride experiences, although in 1991, 1996, 2002–2005, 2011 (August 5 – September 17 only), and for the fall of 2013, the Blue Side ran its trains backward. Guests then enter the ride platform from their track's side of the station.

Layout

After boarding is complete, the red and blue trains are dispatched simultaneously, turning 200 degrees in opposite directions from one another as they proceed toward the chain lift hill. The trains join up again side-by-side on the lift hill behind the station as they begin their ascent. Upon reaching the top, the trains slowly make their way toward the edge before careening down the first drop, reaching speeds up to 66 mph. This is followed by two smaller air time hills before traveling upward and leveling out into a set of trim brakes at the far end of the out-and-back layout.

Here, the trains are slowed as they enter a large 560-degree helix where they circle downward over a small marsh, gradually picking up speed along the way. The helix circles to the left, allowing the red train to pull away, since it is located on the inside track. The tracks finally separate upon exiting the helix at a high velocity. The blue train dips low close to ground level, picking up speed and making up for lost ground, while the red train rises up and passes over the blue train. Both trains turn right 20 degrees until they are running parallel with each other once more, though separated by the outbound tracks. The red train dips down after passing over the blue train, passing over two more airtime hills. Meanwhile, the blue train turns through the wooden supports and traverses only one hill. Both trains then rise into the massive wooden structure of the lift hill, encountering another set of trim brakes to slow them down. Each train then dives opposite each other into a final 360-degree helix. The blue train circles at a significantly smaller radius further making up ground it lost in the earlier helix. They exit the helix and ascend into the final brake run to determine the winner.

location	Six Flags Great America
section	County Fair
coordinates	42.3646°N, -87.9336°W
type	Wood
type2	Racing
status	Operating
opened	May 23, 1981
manufacturer	Intamin
designer	Curtis D. Summers James Figley Leonard Wright
model	Wooden
track	Out and back
lift	Chain
name1	Red
name2	Blue
height1 ft	127
height2 ft	127
drop1 ft	147
drop2 ft	147
length1 ft	4650
length2 ft	4650
speed1 mph	66
speed2 mph	66
inversions1	0
inversions2	0
duration1	2:23
duration2	2:23
angle1	55
angle2	55
capacity	1800
cost	$10 million
restriction in	48
trains	4 2-Blue 2-Red
carspertrain	5
rowspercar	3
ridersperrow	2
transfer accessible	available
rcdb number	9

American Eagle (roller coaster)

History

Ride experience

Queue

Layout

Characteristics

Trains

World records

Previous world records

Current world records

Incidents

External links

References