Sea Dragon is a junior
wooden roller coaster
A wooden roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its wooden track, which consists of running rails made of flat steel strips mounted on laminated wood. The support structure is also typically made of wood, but may also ...
located at the
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is a non-profit zoo located near Powell in Liberty Township, Delaware County, Ohio, United States, north of the city of Columbus. The land lies along the eastern banks of the O'Shaughnessy Reservoir on the Sciot ...
in
Powell, Ohio
Powell is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, located 14 miles (21.5 km) north of the state capital of Columbus. The city is located in Delaware County; a frequent placeholder on the List of highest-income counties in the United States, and 35t ...
. The ride is in the
Rides At Adventure Cove
Rides At Adventure Cove is a small amusement park area that is part of and owned by the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Powell, Ohio. The park was originally part of Wyandot Lake before the zoo purchased the property in 2006, splitting it into tw ...
section of the zoo. Built by
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 ...
(PTC) under famed designer
John C. Allen, the roller coaster opened in 1956 as Jet Flyer. It was one of three junior wooden coasters that Allen designed shortly after becoming president of PTC in 1954 – the other two were Flyer at
Hunt's Pier and Valley Volcano at
Angela Park
Angela Park ( ko, 박혜인, born August 25, 1988) is a Brazilian-American professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour. She holds dual citizenship in Brazil and the United States.
Childhood and personal life
Park was born in Foz do Iguaçu ...
. They were based on earlier designs developed by another legendary coaster architect
Herbert Schmeck
Herbert Paul Schmeck (born 1890 in Reading, Pennsylvania, died 1956) was an American roller coaster designer. From 1923 to 1955, Schmeck designed 84 coasters for the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. As a designer and president, the company became th ...
, who was Allen's mentor.
Following the dismantling of the other two coasters in the late 1980s, Sea Dragon became the oldest roller coaster from John Allen to remain in operation.
The coaster has one four-car
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 transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often ...
. Riders are seated two across with two rows per car, giving the coaster a capacity of 16 riders. Station brakes are manually operated using hand-controlled levers.
Following the closure of
Big Dipper
The Big Dipper ( US, Canada) or the Plough ( UK, Ireland) is a large asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (δ), of third magnitude. Four define a "bowl" ...
in 2007, the Sea Dragon became the oldest operating wooden roller coaster in
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
.
References
{{ACE Coaster Classics
Roller coasters in Ohio
Buildings and structures in Delaware County, Ohio
Roller coasters introduced in 1956