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World longest airtime

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balrog

Mega Poster
Hey ! I was recently wondering which coaster has the world's longest single airtime.
I read somewhere that Shambhala's first camelback was 60m high. As no Giga have any taller airtime hill, I think this would make it the winner in the western world, but I can't be sure.
Moreover, I don't know about Steel Dragon's 64m first hill, which convex part seems to start higher.
 
Well, I guess it might have been the case in 1996. But now, there is many hills over 39m in the world, many of which have ballistic trajectories almost from the bottom up.
 
The first Camelback on Intimidator at Carowinds has about five seconds of airtime in the back seat (I counted once.) That's the longest airtime hill that I've ever experienced. Not sure about Shambala though.

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Ejector air won't be sustained for as long as floater air. Curvature has to be tighter, resulting in shorter track with higher speed (all else equal, which it isn't but is a decent approximation).
 
I guess most B&M hypers. I don't know which one specifically has the single longest lasting airtime moment, but any of the big hills on the hypers I've done have lasted much longer than anything else I've ridden.
 
Millennium Force might be a contender here -- on those two parabolic hills there's a pretty long period of time where even without the track you and the train would be flying in that trajectory. Certainly not the most exciting or ejector air, but you float for quite a bit.

Floating air is caused by shaping the track in the way the ride would fly regardless of if the track was there or not (as on MF's parabolic hills). Ejector is caused by tightening it, e.g. El Toro where you hear that classic Intamin fart as the upstops slam the track.
 
Nitro probably for me, the first hill that sweeps left seems to lift me forever, and the 2nd hill felt just as long. Only other coaster that's come close to that sustained floater was Silver Star, but I've never counted the actual time obviously.
Others have provides some good floater over the peaks but those 2 Hypers specifically had me floating all the way to the bottom of each hill.

Although I'll add in Wildfire's Stall, nearly as long as the Hypers I reckon and you're upside down.
 
Actually, the only relevant characteristic for the duration of a free trajectory (weightlessness) is height. So the question is, is there a taller hill (or more precisely, a hill with a taller ballistic portion) than Shambhala's first ? I am unsure of the number "60m" for Shambi's hill, but if it is correct, neither Nitro nor MF have anything bigger.
 
balrog said:
Actually, the only relevant characteristic for the duration of a free trajectory (weightlessness) is height. So the question is, is there a taller hill (or more precisely, a hill with a taller ballistic portion) than Shambhala's first ? I am unsure of the number "60m" for Shambi's hill, but if it is correct, neither Nitro nor MF have anything bigger.
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Not if the hill isn't profiled in the right way to allow weightlessness during the entire element at the right speed. Kingda Ka's "Hill" doesn't provide the king of weightlessness for example. I think you are probably right though about Shambhala, although I'm still so basic that I haven't ridden it yet.
Shambhala's first hill is 1 foot taller than Nitro's apparently;
https://coasterpedia.net/wiki/Shambhala - the track curves upwards into a 190 feet airtime hill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitro_(Six_Flags_Great_Adventure) - then climbs up a 189-foot-tall (58 m) hill and dives down to the left
 
Well, the height that matter is the one of the ballistic portion of the hill, not the full hill. And obviously, you have to add the ballistic climb and fall. Intamin's vertical accelerators have their airtime broken at the top, Nitro's fisrt hill also have its ballistic trajectory broken at the top. Plus, Shambhala's first hill starts right after a 7ft tunnel, when nitro's first valley is above ground level.
 
The winner here surely has to be the Intamin Reverse Freefall coasters, or more specifically, Superman: Escape from Krypton at SFMM. 415ft towers of vertical up/down gives 0G airtime for the full duration. RCDB puts the airtime duration at 6.5 seconds for Tower of Terror II at Dreamworld, so Superman being around 40ft taller would last a little longer.
 
balrog said:
Actually, the only relevant characteristic for the duration of a free trajectory (weightlessness) is height. So the question is, is there a taller hill (or more precisely, a hill with a taller ballistic portion) than Shambhala's first ? I am unsure of the number "60m" for Shambi's hill, but if it is correct, neither Nitro nor MF have anything bigger.
Click to expand...
Millennium Force's first parabolic hill is 182ft/55m, and is in ballistic trajectory for at least 5-7 seconds. I mean, it's at exactly 0G so it's not that thrilling (the idea is just basically if the train disappeared and reappeared, you'd be in the same seat and is probably a reason for the epithet "Millennium Forceless" lol), but it's pretty surreal. Bigger fan of ejector air.
 
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