X-Flight is the wing coaster at Six Flags Great America. This Bolliger & Mabillard creation
features a compact layout, but it packs in 5 inversions and some great near-misses. Very few
people talk about this wing coaster, but is that a mistake? Find out in this review of X-Flight!
Six Flags Great America has had a long and fruitful relationship with Bolliger & Mabillard.
The Swiss manufacturer got their start at Great America, building their first
ever coaster in 1990 with Iron Wolf, which was a stand-up coaster. Just two years later in 1992,
Great America received the first ever inverted coaster from B&M in Batman the Ride.
In 1999, Great America received one of the first B&M hyper coasters in Raging Bull,
which is still arguably the park’s most popular attraction to this day.
And they also received one of the earliest flying coasters with Superman: Ultimate Flight in 2003.
Great America liked the quality, reliability, and smoothness of these steel coasters.
Bolliger & Mabillard debuted the wing coaster in 2011 with Raptor at Gardaland. This new model
had riders sitting on the side of the track. This was B&M’s first new model in a few years
and unsurprisingly, Great America quickly reached out to have one added at their park.
So for the 2012 season, Great America would add X-Flight. This was the first wing coaster
announced for the United States, but it would open two months after Dollywood’s Wild Eagle.
This would also be the last B&M coaster the Six Flags chain would build for a decade.
After being arguably their biggest customer through the 1990s and early 2000s,
Six Flags wouldn’t build another B&M until 2022 with Dr. Diabolical’s Cliffhanger at Fiesta
Texas. This had nothing to do with the quality of the attractions. Rather it was their price.
X-Flight is rumored to have cost between $12-$15 million, which is pretty cheap for a B&M. The
chain seems willing to spend that amount again on an individual attraction,
as seen with the dive coaster coming to Fiesta Texas, so it will be interesting to see if
Six Flags invests in more wing coasters since this is currently the only one in the chain.
Six Flags had used the X-Flight name once before back when they added a Vekoma flying dutchman to
Six Flags Worlds of Adventure in 2001, but it’s now the only coaster in the chain with the name.
There is a sky coaster at Six Flags Mexico of the same name though.
X-Flight was placed towards the back of the park on the plot of land once home to Splashwater Falls
and the Great America Raceway. And I really like the look of this attraction.
The tangled red track looks striking as it travels adjacent to the midway and over the queue line,
building anticipation. The ride also has a light aviation theme. Not only do the wing style trains
lend themselves well to flight, but the station is designed to look like an airplane hangar.
Then the ride’s iconic near-miss takes place through a giant airplane control tower
that was actually relocated from the nearby O’Hare Airport.
X-Flight has pretty good capacity. Each train seats up to 32 riders across 8 rows. The ride
routinely runs two trains and the crew can check the trains decently quickly.
Despite this, the ride can build a wait by the mid-afternoon because of this ride’s popularity
and the crowds this park sees. However, this ride’s location does typically lead to this
ride being a station wait for the first 2 hours of the day if you head there early.
When you reach the end of the queue line, you have two different staircases to pick from. One leads
to the left side of the train. The other leads to the right side of the train. The ride feels
identical to me on either side, so I recommend choosing whichever one has a shorter wait.
I also don’t have too much of a preference on my row on this coaster either, but if you
want the unobstructed view, go for the front. I do prefer the inside seats to the outer ones though.
The outside ones have better visuals, but they can sometimes have a vibration or bounce to them.
The ride is pretty smooth in general, but the vibrations can give me a slight headache
after repeated rides. X-Flight has some of B&M’s
earliest vest restraints. While these harnesses eliminate all headbanging,
these ones are extremely tight. They have zero give once they tighten.
I typically will hold onto the vest part of the harness once checked to prevent it from
compressing down further. Otherwise, it can dig into your collarbone by the end of the ride.
Once dispatched, you immediately head up a 120 foot or 37 meter tall lift hill.
At the top, you head into a wingover dive drop. The super slow twist at the top offers great
hangtime and cool visuals. It’s a neat sensation rotating over or under the track depending which
side you’re on. Then you dive towards the ground, building up good positive Gs. The
contrast on forces on this element is incredible. That leads into the first of two zero-G rolls. You
get good hangtime in back, but much less up front. It’s weird for a zero-G roll to offer that much
variation in hangtime between the front and back. The front compensates by getting good positive
Gs on the subsequent pullout and entry into the Immelmann. These forces are much milder in back.
Then the flip over the top on the Immelmann isn’t too strong, but you do have a great
headchopper with a support on the pullout. You then twist upwards into another zero-G roll.
This one is very floaty throughout the whole train. The exit of this element
also has a near-miss. The train shoots through an opening in a billboard.
You then twist upwards into the ride’s signature element- the inline twist
through the control tower. This elongated inversion takes nearly 5 seconds to complete.
You slowly rotate, offering insane hangtime. Then you have not one but two near-misses.
The one everyone talks about is the keyhole through the tower. This is a very tight
window. You approach the opening too wide and twist into position at the last instant.
And once you clear the tower, you have another awesome headchopper with a support when you’re
fully inverted. You cannot see this one coming since it’s obstructed by the tower,
so it’ll make you jump. After two straight floaty elements, X-Flight then
treats riders to a very forceful helix full of positive Gs. The helix looks unassuming off-ride,
but it has some deceptive speed and power to it. You then narrowly duck beneath the inline twist’s
exit and hop into the brake run, ending the 3000 foot or 910 meter long coaster.
As for pacing, X-Flight does a good job. While the ride doesn’t feel as fast as its 55 mph or
89 kph top speed, this layout has no filler. You have 5 fun inversions and a strong final helix.
So what would I rate X-Flight? I would give this wing coaster an 8 out of 10. This ride has some
great hangtime moments, particularly on the start of the wingover dive drop and on the inline twist.
Then there are several pullouts and turns that pile on the positive Gs as well.
Add in some awesome headchoppers, particularly through the control tower, and you have a winner.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Six Flags tries to clone this layout in the future.
It seems conducive to being copied and Six Flags is working with B&M again. While I’d
prefer to see another custom layout, this is a nice layout that does a lot in a little space.
So those are my thoughts on X-Flight at Six Flags Great America. What are your thoughts on
Six Flags’s only wing coaster? Do you think it’s underrated? Let me know your thoughts down below.
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