Sky Rocket

Sky Rocket
Kennywood Park
Location	Kennywood Park
Coordinates	40°23′11″N 79°51′53″W / 40.38639°N 79.86472°W / 40.38639; -79.86472Coordinates: 40°23′11″N 79°51′53″W / 40.38639°N 79.86472°W / 40.38639; -79.86472
Status	Operating
Opening date	June 29, 2010 (2010-06-29)
General statistics
Type	Steel
Manufacturer	Premier Rides
Lift/launch system	LSM launch
Height	95 ft (29 m)
Length	2,100 ft (640 m)
Speed	50 mph (80 km/h)
Inversions	3
Duration	1:05
Max vertical angle	90°
Acceleration	0 to 50 mph (0 to 80 km/h) in 3 seconds
G-force	0.8
Height restriction	52 in (132 cm)
Trains	2 trains with 2 cars. Riders are arranged 2 across in 3 rows for a total of 12 riders per train.
Sky Rocket at RCDB Pictures of Sky Rocket at RCDB

Sky Rocket is a steel roller coaster located at Kennywood amusement park near Pittsburgh in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. Manufactured by Premier Rides, Sky Rocket opened to the public on June 29, 2010. It was the first major coaster addition at the park in almost a decade following the renovation of Phantom's Revenge in 2001.

The Sky Rocket occupies the ground near the entrance formerly occupied by Turnpike, an attraction that is expected to return to the park sometime in the future.

History[]

Construction of Sky Rocket was completed in the spring of 2010. The ride opened on June 29, 2010.

For the 2017 season, riders were given the option of using a virtual reality headset when riding.^[1]

Ride experience[]

After exiting the station, the train turns 180 degrees. It then lines up with the launch motors and is accelerated from 0-50 mph (80 km/h) in 3 seconds. It goes up a 95-foot top hat element (without changing direction) into a cutback inversion, which is two half-corkscrews joined together in opposite directions so that the train exits moving 180 degrees from the direction it entered. It goes straight into a Zero-G Roll followed by a 180 degree upwards curve into the mid-course brake run. it comes almost to a complete stop only to plummet to the ground with a near-vertical drop. It goes into a low over-banked turn under the cutback, followed by a corkscrew over another piece of track, creating a head-chopper effect. It goes into another over-banked turn, followed by a series of S-curves to add to the excitement. It does one more 180 degree turn into a series of bunny hops going under the corkscrew. It does one final twist straight into the final brake run.

Trains[]

The trains are painted red and black with the "Sky Rocket" logo on the front, and each train has 2 cars. The ride also features a harness system, which locks riders in at the waist rather than the shoulders. This gives riders a sense of mobility not usually felt in coasters featuring inversions.

Notability[]

Sky Rocket is a powered launch coaster using linear synchronous motors, a first for Premier Rides designs.

It is also one of only fourteen coasters in the world to feature a cutback inversion, Space Mountain: Mission 2 at Disneyland Paris and SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge at Nickelodeon Universe are a few other examples.

The ride was SBNO (Standing But Not Operating) during 2018 and the early part of 2019. Park maintenance confirmed that they were having some issues with the generator and that they did not have an estimated date for reopening the ride at the time.

The ride re-opened on July 14, 2019, after Kennywood announced via a Facebook video that the Sky Rocket would once again be open to riders.^[2]

Awards[]

See also[]

• Superman: Ultimate Flight (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom), another Premier Rides roller coaster which is considered, by the manufacturer, as Sky Rocket's successor^[6]

References[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sky Rocket.

^[7][8][9]