10 Incredible Roller Coasters You'll Never Get To Ride Ever Again
9. Hypersonic XLC
Location: Kings Dominion (Doswell, Virginia)
Riders of Hypersonic XLC would sometimes refer to it is as “a two hour wait for a five second ride”. To be precise, it was actually sixteen seconds long. It relied entirely on modern technologies which used the first ever compressed air launcher for a roller coaster.
Amazingly, it went from 0 to 80mph is approximately 1.5 seconds and accelerated up to an extreme 165-foot hill without fully slowing before plummeting down a 90-degree dive. What came after was a banked left turn which then went through a smaller banked right turn, and skirted a small hill before heading into the break run.
Whilst it was a popular coaster, one in which amusement park enthusiasts travelled far and wide just to try out, there were always problems with the ride’s physics which had a great impact on the human body. Passengers who put their hands up on launch frequently suffered dislocated shoulders from the sheer force of the launch.
Kings Dominion park faced several lawsuits singlehandedly from the Hypersonic XLC and authorities were forced to terminate its service permanently. It has since then been completely disassembled.