Hyperion is a

steel roller coaster A steel roller coaster is a roller coaster that is defined by having a track made of steel. Steel coasters have earned immense popularity in the past 50 years throughout the world. Incorporating tubular steel track and polyurethane-coated whee ...

located at

Energylandia Energylandia is an amusement park in Poland. It is located in Zator in Lesser Poland, which is in southern Poland. It is approximately away from Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland ...

in Zator, Poland. The ride was manufactured by Swiss manufacturer

Intamin Intamin Amusement Rides is a design and manufacturing company in Schaan, Liechtenstein. It is best known for creating thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The Intamin brand name is a syllabic abbreviation for "international amusement ins ...

and opened on 14 July 2018. It is themed to a fictional mission to

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

's moon Hyperion and reaches a height of , has a maximum speed of , and features several hills and banked turns. , Hyperion is the tallest, fastest, and longest roller coaster in Poland.

History

In October 2016, Energylandia posted two concepts for a new mega coaster on

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. One of these concepts was from Dutch manufacturer

Vekoma Vekoma Rides Manufacturing is a Dutch amusement ride manufacturer. Vekoma is syllabic abbreviation of Veld Koning Machinefabriek (Veld Koning Machine Factory) which was established in 1926 by Hendrik op het Veld. History The company originally ...

; the other was from Swiss manufacturer

. The park asked the public to vote on which of the two roller coasters they would like to see built for the 2018 season. The following month, it was announced that Intamin would be the manufacturer of the new roller coaster. Construction on the new ride began in October 2017. That same month, Energylandia announced that the ride would be named Hyperion. The first pieces of track arrived at the park on 13 December 2017 and the first track piece was installed on 24 December. On 29 December, Energylandia released a short trailer for the ride on

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. The lift hill was topped off on 28 April 2018 and the last piece of track was installed on 28 May. Pull-through clearance testing began on 12 June and the first full test run was completed on 28 June. Hyperion opened on 14 July 2018. Approximately 100 people were involved in Hyperion's construction. The concrete used for the ride's foundations was provided by 50 concrete mixers from a nearby facility. Several excavators and two cranes were also used during the ride's construction.

Ride experience

Immediately upon leaving the station, the

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

begins to ascend the 77-metre (253 ft)

lift hill A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from th ...

. After reaching the top of the lift hill, the train drops at an angle of 85 degrees into a

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

, reaching a speed of 142 kilometres per hour (88 mph). The train then exits the tunnel and travels over a large hill. Following this hill, the train enters an

inversion Inversion or inversions may refer to: Arts * , a French gay magazine (1924/1925) * ''Inversion'' (artwork), a 2005 temporary sculpture in Houston, Texas * Inversion (music), a term with various meanings in music theory and musical set theory * ...

that consists of a large turnaround similar to a dive drop. The train then banks to the left at high speed before travelling over a small hill. This hill is immediately followed by a much larger hill. The train then travels through a large

overbanked turn This list of roller coaster elements contains the individual parts of roller coaster design and operation. Introduction Roller coaster elements are the individual parts of roller coaster design and operation, such as a track, hill, loop, or turn. ...

to the left, passing underneath the lift hill structure. This turn is followed by a series of small hills and banked turns before the final brake run. There is a water feature consisting of

fountains A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or Spring (hydrology), spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. ...

on either side of the track immediately before the final brake run.

Characteristics

Hyperion, Energylandia - Station Interior

Track

The steel track of Hyperion is in length and the lift hill is tall. The track and supports are painted black. The ride features one

, a tunnel, hills, banked turns, and a water feature.

Trains

Hyperion uses two trains coloured blue, white, and black. Each train has seven cars, with each car seating four riders in a single row; this allows a capacity of 28 riders per train. Riders are restrained by an over-the-shoulder lap bar. The two inner seats in each row are positioned slightly higher than the two outer seats. The ride can accommodate a maximum of 1,300 riders per hour.

Theme

Hyperion is themed to a research mission to Saturn's moon Hyperion. According to the ride's theme story, the spacecraft encounters a

black hole A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...

during the mission and is transported through a space-time vortex to another universe, where it discovers a twin of planet Earth. Guests in the queue can view video screens that tell the ride's theme story.

Reception

Hyperion has generally been well received. Sven Popelier of ''Coaster Kings'' praised the ride's intensity and air time, but he also noted that the seats in the back of the train did not give as smooth a ride as in the front of the train. Hyperion received the ''European Top New Attraction'' award at the ''Parksmania Awards 2018''.

Incidents

On 16 August 2018, a park employee was fatally injured when he was hit by one of Hyperion's trains. It is believed that the employee was searching for a phone that was lost by a guest when he was struck by the ride.

References

External links

Official page (in Polish and English)
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 10,000 roller coasters from around the world. Publications that have mentioned ...

Hyperion
at Coaster-Net {{Energylandia Roller coasters introduced in 2018 2018 establishments in Poland Roller coasters in Poland