Ninja is an

Arrow Dynamics Arrow Dynamics was an American manufacturing and engineering company that specialized in designing and building amusement park rides, especially roller coasters. Based in Clearfield, Utah, the company was the successor to Arrow Development (194 ...

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

suspended roller coaster A suspended roller coaster is a type of steel roller coaster in which the car hangs from the bottom of the rolling stock by a pivoting fulcrum or hinge assembly. This allows the car and riders to swing side to side as the train races along the ...

located at

Six Flags Magic Mountain Six Flags Magic Mountain, formerly known and colloquially referred to as simply Magic Mountain, is a amusement park located in Valencia, California, northwest of downtown Los Angeles. It opened on May 29, 1971, as a development of the Newha ...

Valencia, California Valencia is an unincorporated community in northwestern Los Angeles County, California. This area, with major commercial and industrial parks, straddles State Route 126 and the Santa Clara River. Development projects continue to be built in ...

. It is the fastest roller coaster of its kind in the world, joint with

Vortex In fluid dynamics, a vortex ( : vortices or vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in th ...

Canada's Wonderland Canada's Wonderland, formerly known as Paramount Canada's Wonderland, is a amusement park located in Vaughan, Ontario, a municipality within the Greater Toronto Area. Opened in 1981 by the Taft Broadcasting Company and the Great-West Life As ...

, both with top speeds of 55 mph (89 km/h).

History

On December 9, 1987, Six Flags Magic Mountain announced that Ninja would be added to the park. The attraction opened on May 21, 1988. The coaster is located in the Samurai Summit area of

in Valencia, California. Upon opening, Ninja was the fifth of the ten original Arrow suspended coasters. It is somewhat unusual in that it uses two

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 ...

s — one at the beginning of the ride and a second one just before the end, to return the train to station elevation. Ninja's station building previously served as the upper station for Six Flags Magic Mountain's Dragon tram. The tram carried passengers up and down the hillside until its closure in 1981, and its abandoned lower station can still be found near

Jet Stream Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow, meandering thermal wind, air currents in the Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheres of some planets, including Earth. On Earth, the main jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause and are west ...

's station and Ninja's final brake run. ''Ninja'' is the only Arrow Dynamics suspended coaster west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. The other three suspended coasters in North America (

, Iron Dragon at

Cedar Point Cedar Point is a amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. Opened in 1870, it is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the U.S. behind Lake Compounce. Cedar Point is owned and op ...

and The Bat at

Kings Island Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and expan ...

) are all east of the Mississippi. The station building is designed to resemble elements of Japanese architecture, and features several large renditions of classic Japanese woodblock prints of popular Kabuki actors of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

, mostly by Tōshūsai Sharaku. Soon after

Six Flags Astroworld Six Flags AstroWorld, also known simply as AstroWorld, was a seasonally operated amusement park in Houston, Texas. Owned and operated by Six Flags, the park was situated between Kirby Drive and Fannin Street, directly south of I-610. The park o ...

was shut down in 2005, the trains from their suspended

XLR-8 XLR-8 (pronounced "accelerate") was a suspended roller coaster located at the defunct Six Flags AstroWorld. Manufactured by Arrow Huss at a cost of $3.2 million, the ride opened to the public in 1984, where it operated until the park's closure i ...

were brought to Six Flags Magic Mountain to be used on Ninja. Ninja received a fresh coat of paint for the 2007 season; the ride was repainted with bright red track and white supports. In 2008, Six Flags Magic Mountain installed a new control system for Ninja.

Incidents

*On August 30, 2008, at approximately 4 p.m. PDT, 20-year-old Michael Rohrer of

West Hollywood, California West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most ...

was struck by a coaster vehicle passing overhead after he entered a restricted area below the ride by scaling two 6-foot perimeter fences to retrieve a lost hat. He was treated at the scene by park first aid, then airlifted to the

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (also commonly referred to as ''UCLA Medical Center'', "RRMC" or "Ronald Reagan") is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in comatose condition. He was pronounced dead on August 31, 2008 at approximately 2 a.m. PDT. Cause of death was attributed to blunt force trauma. *On the evening of July 7, 2014, a pine tree branch fell across the coaster's track, causing the first car of the train to derail, stranding the riders aboard. Four people were injured in the accident and two were treated in the hospital, all for minor injuries. Twelve days after the incident, Six Flags Magic Mountain reopened the coaster on July 19, 2014.

References

External links

Ninja at the Six Flags Magic Mountain website
{{Six Flags Magic Mountain Roller coasters in California Roller coasters operated by Six Flags Roller coasters introduced in 1988 Six Flags Magic Mountain

History

Incidents

See also

References

External links