Half Pipe is a steel

shuttle roller coaster A shuttle roller coaster is any roller coaster that ultimately does not make a complete circuit, but rather reverses at some point throughout its course and traverses the same track backwards. These are sometimes referred to as boomerang roller c ...

located at Elitch Gardens in

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

. The

launched roller coaster The launched roller coaster is a type of roller coaster that initiates a ride with high amounts of acceleration via one or a series of linear induction motors (LIM), linear synchronous motors (LSM), catapults, tires, chains, or other mechanism ...

was manufactured by

Intamin Intamin Amusement Rides is a design and manufacturing company in Schaan, Liechtenstein, best-known for designing and constructing Amusement ride, thrill rides and roller coasters at dozens of international theme parks, amusement parks and other e ...

and designed by

Werner Stengel Werner Stengel (born 22 August 1936, in Bochum) is a German roller coaster designer and engineer. Stengel is the founder of Stengel Engineering, also known as Ingenieurbüro Stengel GmbH (or Ingenieurbuero Stengel GmbH). Stengel first worked on a ...

. It opened to the public on May 27, 2004. An identical installation opened a year earlier at

Särkänniemi Särkänniemi (; 'Cape of Sandbank') is an amusement park in Tampere, Finland, located in the district by the same name. The park features an aquarium, a planetarium, Doghill Fairytale Farm, an art museum and an observation tower Näsinneul ...

Tampere, Finland Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

, but was closed in 2019. It features an drop height and a maximum speed of . Riders are placed in one of two cars on the train which is made to resemble a giant skateboard. Each car is a free-spinning circle that holds eight people. The track is in the shape of an upright "U", and riders board at the base of the track. LIM engines accelerate the train up both sides of the track. A ride cycle consists of approximately five to six cycles of the train traveling through the track. A third Half Pipe installation, identical to the others, was built on top of the

Don Quijote Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *Don (river), a river in European Russia * Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name * Don, Benin, a town in Benin * Don, Dang, a village and hill station in Dang district, G ...

store in

Roppongi Roppongi (, , 'six trees') is a district of Minato, Tokyo, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, famous for the affluent Roppongi Hills development area and popular night club scene. A few foreign embassies are located near Roppongi, and the night life is popu ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. It was completed in December 2005 but never opened, and it remained standing until its removal in 2017–2018. On November 13, 2019, the Särkänniemi version was reported as not reopening for the 2020 season.

References

External links

*
Half Pipe at Särkänniemi
at the

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 12,000 roller coasters from around the world. Publications that have mentioned ...

Half Pipe at Elitch Gardens
at the

Elitch Gardens Theme Park Roller coasters manufactured by Intamin Roller coasters in Colorado Roller coasters introduced in 2004 Steel roller coasters Roller coasters operated by Herschend Family Entertainment Amusement rides that closed in 2019 {{amusement-ride-stub