Skyrush Confirmed for Hersheypark 2012

Ever since the whole Canada's Wonderland 2012 speculation, and my trips over the summer, I kept forgetting to update the blog on Hersheypark's 2012 coaster. It has been confirmed on August 2nd:

Hersheypark will add a first-of-its-kind $25-million steel roller coaster in May that will be the tallest, fastest and longest at the Pennsylvania theme park.

After a yearlong viral marketing campaign that teased fans with hints and clues about "Attraction 2012," Hersheypark unveiled plans Tuesday for an Intamin Wing Mega coaster, with winged seats, called Skyrush.

Under construction in the Comet Hollow section of Hersheypark, the 200-foot-tall Skyrush coaster will feature a near-vertical 85-degree first drop followed by four high-speed banking turns and five airtime hills at speeds reaching 75 mph.

The 3,600-foot-long Skyrush track will travel along a creek and cross over the 1947 Comet out-and-back wooden coaster. The coaster's station house will be modeled after historic train stations in the Hershey area.

The 32-passenger cantilevered trains will feature floored seats on the inside and floorless seats on the outside in a custom first-of-its-kind design.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/02/news/la-trb-hersheypark-skyrush-coaster-08201102

And here are some concept art (Hersheypark posted these):













































































Here is a video of the ride (also posted by Hersheypark):



The unique thing about this ride is the ride vehicle. It almost resembles the Maurer 4-Across X-Car Trains. It has floor in the center of the train, and the outer seats are floorless (funny, one of my ideas for this ride was a Maurer 4-across X-Train).

The ride looks incredible (I also like the name)! I've recently ridden a cornucopia of Intamins (Millennium Force, Intimidator 305, Top Thrill Dragster, Volcano, Maverick, and Cheetah Hunt) and they have been some of my favorite rides, and I think this ride will be no different (if I go to Hersheypark in the future, which I probably will someday, especially because of this ride and Fahrenheit). Plus, the hypercoaster (and a Wing Coaster, though this "kind of" resembles a Wing Coaster, just with seats in the middle) is the only thing missing from Hershey's coaster count.

I just hope Florida gets a hypercoaster some day... that will REALLY make me a happy camper! SeaWorld, Universal, BGT... anyone? Oooh... maybe I have an idea! BGT builds a B&M Hyper and SWO builds an Intamin like this. ;)

But yeah, I really like the look of this ride... =)