Bolliger & Mabillard and Intamin are responsible for creating many of the most popular and successful steel roller coasters of the past two decades.
Bolliger & Mabillard: Creating Innovative Crowd-Pleasers for the Masses
Bolliger & Mabillard are known for their fun, crowd-pleasers that appeal to a wide range of theme park-goers. Riders often remark on their creations’ smoothness that encourages re-rides. Their most successful ride designs include the Batman: The Ride inverted roller coasters and their Superman Ultimate Flight flying roller coasters as both have been copied and installed at different Six Flags parks.
You can identify B&M’s roller coasters by their four-across trains that ride along rails that sit on a box-shaped spine. B&M has added several successful, innovative twists on roller coaster designs. They are responsible for the first inverted roller coaster where riders sit ski lift-style below the track. This built on the previous suspended coaster design as it allowed for the trains to traverse loops.
B&M’s popular sit-down looping coasters include Incredible Hulk at Universal’s Islands of Adventure and Kumba at Busch Gardens Tampa. They’ve also produced tall, hilly hyper coasters like Diamondback at Kings Island, Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure, and Apollo’s Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Floorless roller coasters like Medusa, Bizarro. and Kraken at SeaWorld as well as dive coasters Griffon and SheiKra at the Busch Gardens parks. Flying roller coasters include Manta at SeaWorld Orlando and Tatsu at Six Flags Magic Mountain. And most recently, wing roller coasters like GateKeeper at Cedar Point, Wild Eagle at Dollywood, and X-Flight at Six Flags Great America.
Intamin: Creating Today’s Record Breakers & Thrill Machines
Intamin is a company that has pushed the limits of roller coasters both in terms of height and speed. They designed 8 of the 10 tallest roller coasters in the World including the popular American coasters Millennium Force, Intimidator 305, Top Thrill Dragster, and Kingda Ka.
Intamin also designed the former record holder for most loops (10) on a roller coaster, Colossus at Thorpe Park. And with Superman The Escape, Top Thrill Dragster, and Kingda Ka, they’ve also pushed the speed envelope by setting and breaking new records while launching riders in excess of 100 mph.
Intamin can also boast two of the most highly ranked rides by roller coaster enthusiasts. El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure and Bizarro at Six Flags New England have been repeatedly rated at the very top of the best wooden and steel roller coaster lists in polls. Other popular Intamin rides include Volcano: The Blast Coaster at Kings Dominion, Stormrunner at Hersheypark, Xcelerator at Knotts Berry Farms, California Screamin’ at Disney’s California Adventure Park, and Maverick at Cedar Point.
Which Roller Coaster Designer Would You Pick?
It’s been awesome having both of these companies providing their array of thrill rides all these years. They’ve spoiled us with the majority of the best steel roller coasters on the planet. Thankfully, we don’t have to pick, but what if you did? If there was only one of the two, which would you pick?
Vote below by clicking on one of the images and you’ll see how others voted.[dil dil = 12732]
Let us know why you voted the way you did by leaving a comment below.