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Gwazi
Iron Gwazi (formerly Gwazi) is a steel-track hybrid roller coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, a theme park in Tampa, Florida, United States. The ride, named after a fabled creature with a tiger's head and a lion's body, was built by Great Coasters International (GCI) as Gwazi, a wooden dueling roller coaster with two separate tracks. It opened to the public on June 18, 1999. The two tracks, named Lion and Tiger, were long and high. Trains reached a maximum speed of . Gwazi replaced the former Anheuser-Busch brewery that was located in the middle of the park. Gwazi operated both tracks until 2012, with the closure of the tiger side. Following rising maintenance costs and declining ridership, the remaining side was closed in 2015. Following the closure, the wooden structure sat dormant for several years. Replacement attractions were considered by the park, including a remodeled roller coaster, an amphitheater, and a new attraction. In 2018, the park announced plans to refurbis ...
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Gwazi (Busch Gardens Africa) 02
Iron Gwazi (formerly Gwazi) is a steel-track hybrid roller coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, a theme park in Tampa, Florida, United States. The ride, named after a fabled creature with a tiger's head and a lion's body, was built by Great Coasters International (GCI) as Gwazi, a wooden dueling roller coaster with two separate tracks. It opened to the public on June 18, 1999. The two tracks, named Lion and Tiger, were long and high. Trains reached a maximum speed of . Gwazi replaced the former Anheuser-Busch brewery that was located in the middle of the park. Gwazi operated both tracks until 2012, with the closure of the tiger side. Following rising maintenance costs and declining ridership, the remaining side was closed in 2015. Following the closure, the wooden structure sat dormant for several years. Replacement attractions were considered by the park, including a remodeled roller coaster, an amphitheater, and a new attraction. In 2018, the park announced plans to refurbi ...
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Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is a animal theme park located in Tampa, Florida, United States, with the entire park landscaped and designed around themes of Africa and Asia. Owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, the park opened on June 1, 1959. The park has an annual attendance consistently exceeding 4 million, often ranking second among SeaWorld parks behind SeaWorld Orlando. The park features many roller coasters and thrill rides, including a Dive Coaster called SheiKra, a "family-style" thrill coaster (with one inversion and three launches) themed around cheetahs called Cheetah Hunt, a launched roller coaster called Tigris (roller coaster), Tigris, a classic seated steel roller coaster called Kumba (roller coaster), Kumba, a wood-steel hybrid roller coaster, hybrid hypercoaster called Iron Gwazi, Falcon's Fury (the second-tallest free-standing drop tower in North America, and one of few to tilt and face riders towards the ground), and Montu (roller coaster), Montu, ...
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Amusement Today
''Amusement Today'' is a monthly periodical that features articles, news, pictures and reviews about all things relating to the amusement park industry, including parks, rides, and ride manufacturers. The trade newspaper, which is based in Arlington, Texas, United States, was founded in January 1997 by Gary Slade, Virgil E. Moore III and Rick Tidrow. In 1997, ''Amusement Today'' won the Impact Award in the services category for "Best New Product" from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA). A year later, in 1998, the magazine founded the Golden Ticket Awards, for which it has become best known for throughout the amusement park industry. On January 2, 2001, Slade bought out his two partners, giving him sole ownership of the paper. The paper has two full-time and two part-time staff members at its Arlington office, along with two full-time writers and several freelance writers in various parts of the world. Golden Ticket Awards Every year, ''Amuse ...
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Great Coasters International
Great Coasters International, Inc. (GCI or GCII) is a Sunbury, Pennsylvania-based roller coaster manufacturer which has created several award-winning rides since its formation in 1994. Starting in 2006 with Thunderbird at PowerPark in Finland, the company expanded beyond the United States and began building coasters in Europe and Asia. Günter Engelhardt GmbH handles the company's marketing rights in Europe. In addition to designing and building new roller coasters, GCI also refurbishes and re-tracks existing roller coasters, regardless of manufacturer. Roller coasters designed by GCI are known for their often curved drops, twisted layouts, and perception of high speed. Exciting elements such as the station fly-by and station fly-through have been incorporated in many of their layouts. History GCI was founded in 1994 by Mike Boodley and Clair Hain, Jr. Boodley was a coaster designer previously with Custom Coasters International and Hain had gained a reputation throughout the ind ...
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Rocky Mountain Construction
Rocky Mountain Construction, often abbreviated as RMC, is a manufacturing and construction company based in Hayden, Idaho, United States. The company is best known for its I-Box track and Topper Track for wooden roller coasters. History In 2001, Rocky Mountain Construction was established by Fred Grubb and Suanne Dedmon. Fred Grubb previously had experience in the construction industry having worked on custom homes and zoo exhibits. The company has worked on several projects including the construction of roller coasters, water parks, steel buildings, miniature golf courses and go kart tracks. In 2009 Alan Schilke of Ride Centerline began providing design and engineering work for Rocky Mountain Construction. He previously worked with Arrow Dynamics (later S&S Worldwide) to design Tennessee Tornado, Road Runner Express, and X. Working with Rocky Mountain Construction, Schilke and Grubb designed the I-Box track for wooden roller coasters. The first installation of this trac ...
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Dueling Roller Coaster
A dual-tracked roller coaster is a roller coaster that consists of two tracks. They can be configured as racing, dueling, or Möbius loop roller coasters. Some dual-track coasters operate only one track side at a time, including Rolling Thunder and Colossus. Others may opt to run one side facing frontward and one side facing backward. Variants : consists of two separate roller coasters that travel along parallel or mirrored tracks to simulate a race between the trains. The coaster trains travel along tracks just a few feet apart from one another. They often get close enough for riders to reach out and slap hands with riders on the opposite train, though this is extremely dangerous. These coasters are usually old wooden coasters. : features two (or more) roller coasters, usually with a similar layout, built close to each other. The rides are designed to do just as the name indicates: to duel. The coaster's layout often consists of strategic maneuvering to produce near-hits ...
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Alan Schilke
Alan Schilke is an engineer and roller coaster designer based in Hayden, Idaho, United States. He first made his mark on the industry by designing the 4th Dimension roller coaster, X2, while working with Arrow Dynamics. Schilke now works as a design engineer at Ride Centerline LLC and occasionally works with Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC). Career Schilke worked with Arrow Dynamics for many years working his way up to the role of head engineer. During his time at Arrow Dynamics, Schilke was credited as the designer of '' Road Runner Express'' at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and '' Tennessee Tornado'' at Dollywood. Around the same time, Schilke came up with the concept of the 4th Dimension roller coaster. This concept was criticised by his colleagues at Arrow Dynamics for being too extreme and impossible to engineer. The project only got off the ground when Six Flags' President Gary Story asked the company to develop a scaled-down prototype. This then led to the design of '' X'' wh ...
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InvadR
InvadR is a wooden roller coaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg theme park. Built by Great Coasters International, it opened on April 7, 2017. History After a three-month web-campaign on March 19, 2016, Busch Gardens Williamsburg announced that a new wooden roller coaster would be introduced in 2017. The park let fans vote among three names – Viking Raider, InvadR, and Battle Klash – until April 1, 2016. InvadR was ultimately chosen by the Internet poll. On May 30, 2016, it was confirmed that trains from Gwazi, a defunct roller coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is a animal theme park located in Tampa, Florida, United States, with the entire park landscaped and designed around themes of Africa and Asia. Owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, the park opened on Ju ..., would be repurposed for InvadR. The attraction opened to the general public on April 7, 2017. Ride experience After leaving the station, the train makes two right turns ...
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Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple global brands, notably Budweiser, Michelob, Stella Artois, and Beck's. The company employs over 19,000 people, operates 12 breweries in the United States, and until December 2009, was one of the largest theme park operators in the United States, with ten theme parks through the company's family entertainment division Busch Entertainment Corporation. History Beginnings and national expansion In 1852, German American brewer and saloon operator George Schneider opened the Bavarian Brewery on Carondelet Avenue (later known as South Broadway) between Dorcas and Lynch streets in South St. Louis.Herbst, 32. Schneider's brewery expanded in 1856 to a new brewhouse near Eighth and Crittenden streets; however, the following year financial problems fo ...
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United States Patent And Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexandria, Virginia, after a 2005 move from the Crystal City area of neighboring Arlington, Virginia. The USPTO is "unique among federal agencies because it operates solely on fees collected by its users, and not on taxpayer dollars". Its "operating structure is like a business in that it receives requests for services—applications for patents and trademark registrations—and charges fees projected to cover the cost of performing the services tprovide . The Office is headed by the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a position last held by Andrei Iancu until he left office on January 20, 2021. Commissioner of Patents Drew Hirshfeld is performing the funct ...
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Roller Coaster DataBase
Roller Coaster DataBase (RCDB) is a roller coaster and amusement park database begun in 1996 by Duane Marden. It has grown to feature statistics and pictures of over 10,000 roller coasters from around the world. Publications that have mentioned RCDB include ''The New York Times'', ''Los Angeles Times'', ''Toledo Blade'', ''Orlando Sentinel'', ''Time'', ''Forbes'', ''Mail & Guardian'', and ''Chicago Sun-Times''. History RCDB was started in 1996 by Duane Marden, a computer programmer from Brookfield, Wisconsin. The website is run off web servers in Marden's basement and a location in St. Louis. Content Each roller coaster entry includes any of the following information for the ride: current amusement park location, type, status (existing, standing but not operating (SBNO), defunct), opening date, make/model, cost, capacity, length, height, drop, number of inversions, speed, duration, maximum vertical angle, trains, and special notes. Entries may also feature reader-contributed p ...
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Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters
Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (PTC) is one of the oldest existing roller coaster manufacturing companies in the world. Based in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, it was established in 1904 by Henry Auchey and Chester Albright under the name Philadelphia Toboggan Company. The company manufactured carousels, wooden roller coaster, wooden roller coasters, toboggans (roller coaster cars) and later, roller coaster trains. History The Philadelphia Toboggan Company was incorporated January 20, 1904. It built and designed roller coasters until 1979. Notable designers included Joe McKee, John A. Miller, Herbert Schmeck, Frank Hoover, and John C. Allen. When Allen retired as president in 1976, the company stopped designing roller coasters but continued to work on coaster projects until 1979 when it exited the coaster-construction industry permanently. The company manufactured carousels known for their elaborate carvings and decorations. It expanded with the acquisition of the inventory of the De ...
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