GateKeeper, longest winged roller coaster coming to Cedar Point in 2013, forever changes landscape

SANDUSKY, Ohio - For more than a week, Cedar Point kept the buzz building about a new ride coming to the amusement park next year. On Monday, officials revealed the big secret: the world's longest winged roller coaster will thrill guests in May of 2013.

Winged coasters give guests a thrill like no other ride can, with the track in the middle and riders on each side. Those who have ridden on such coasters describe it as sitting on the wing of a plane, being twisted and turned upside-down along a lengthy track.

GateKeeper will take guests on a 2:40 ride at speeds around 67 mph through 4,164 feet of steel tubular blue track. At some point, it will drop riders 163 feet as it continues to whirl around curves.

The design team at the Swedish company Bolliger and Mabillard, which is manufacturing GateKeeper and also built Raptor and Mantis at Cedar Point, specially designed the new attraction for Cedar Point, forever changing the guest entrance.

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GateKeeper will fly over the main entrance of the park, passing above arriving guests with rolling flyover maneuvers -- twice, sliding by buildings and narrowly slotting through new front gate portals for near miss excitement.

Once riders crest the top of the hill on GateKeeper, the coaster will rotate 180 degrees, turning riders upside-down before plummeting toward the ground at speeds exceeding 65 mph.

Riders will then be taken along a half loop and twist, before flying over a giant 105-foot hill.

Next comes a 360-degree flip that will give riders on each side of the train a different experience. The flip sends riders into the Zero-G-Roll, a flying element where riders travel through two support towers.

A tight 180-degree turnaround then pushes riders through an overbanked turn and rockets them back toward the station.

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It's toward the end of the ride that incoming guests will see those flying along GateKeeper. The 360-degree in-line roll gives riders an up-close view of the massive support towers while flying over those just arriving to the amusement park.

A quick drop propels guests through the ride's final thrill, the spiral, before coming to a halt.

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GateKeeper can accommodate 1,710 riders per hour and is being built where Disaster Transport and the Space Spiral are located. It's all part of a $30 million project overhauling the park's entrance.

Construction is already under way. Parts are set to arrive in mid-October for GateKeeper and steel erection is slated to begin in November.

The GateKeeper will be the first new coaster since Maverick opened in 2007.

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