What is: Hyperion
Hyperion is a steel mega coaster located at Energylandia, in Zator, Poland.
The ride opened to the public as Poland’s tallest, fastest and longest roller coaster;
as well as the tallest and fastest attraction of its kind within Europe as a whole.
Hyperion debuted on the 14th of July 2018, 9 months after construction first began.
From a distance, it’s safe to say that the ride looks tall.
Energylandia’s Intamin mega-coaster, stands 77m (253ft) high, dominating the nearby skyline
and stretching adjacent to the car park.
However, as guests come closer to the attraction’s entrance, they begin to learn more about it's
initially not so obvious theme.
Interesting, Hyperion is themed to space travel, more specifically, a mission to Hyperion,
one of Saturn’s many moons.
To join the queue line, guests travel through the O in the large letters outside the station,
and begin to navigate the rides main building.
At this point, they encounter a multitude of projections and screens, explaining their objective.
Visitors are astronauts, destined to be part of the research mission to Hyperion aboard
the spaceship Hyperion_1.
It quickly becomes clear that guests are walking through what looks like a futuristic space station.
Riders navigate a multitude of rooms, eventually entering the station building.
At this point, visitors board one of two trains, each of which seat guests in 7 rows of 4.
This leads to a total of 28 riders per train.
Once everyone on board is ready, a countdown begins.
At 0, guests leave the station building and instantly begin the long climb.
The trains ascend to the rides’ maximum point, placing them high above the rest of the park.
Here, they crest the top of the lift hill and peak over the 82m (269ft) drop.
Riders then quickly plummet down at the maximum vertical angle of 85 degrees, straight into a tunnel.
It’s at this point that the trains reach their top speed of 142kmh (88mph).
After traversing briefly underground, riders emerge from the tunnel into a large airtime hill.
Several seconds later, guests quickly accelerate towards the ground, all before climbing a 2nd hill.
This time however, the trains whip to the right, inverting visitors into the rides only
inversion, a large dive drop.
Once navigated, guests complete a high speed leftward bank, followed by a small speed-hill.
They then ascend a another large airtime hill.
Seconds later, the trains bank left into an overbanked turn, passing underneath the ride’s lift hill.
The majority of the later layout is then comprised of small speed hills, a series of whippy banked
turns, and a final large airtime hill.
Guests then pass through a series of water fountains, before ascending into the ride’s
final break run, marking the end of their experience.
Over the course of a single ride, visitors navigate a total of 1450m (4757ft) of track,
all within approximately 48 seconds of actual ride time.
Due to its moderate length and large train capacity, Hyperion has a throughput of roughly
1300 riders per hour.
Despite these impressive statistics, arguably the most interesting fact about this particular
attraction is that it might not have even existed at all.
Back in October of 2016, the park, Energylandia, posted two ride concepts for a new mega coaster onto Facebook.
One of these concepts came from Hyperion’s actual manufacturer, Intamin; while the other
was from the Dutch firm, Vekoma.
Both rides featured similar starts.
However, part way through the ride the Vekoma concept focused more on tight twists and turns,
while the Intamin design flowed through a less compact mixture of airtime hills and quick transitions.
Energylandia then asked fans to vote for the concept they would like to see built at the park.
As we know today the Intamin ride won the vote, leading to a slightly modified design
of the original concept being built; Hyperion.
Overall, the park’s largest roller coaster has been well received.
Many praise the ride for its intensity and airtime.
However, others raise a concern, stating that despite its young age the back of the train
give a noticeably rougher experience compared to the front.
Nevertheless, Hyperion is overall seen as a fantastic roller coaster, offering a wide
mixture of forces, and exciting track elements.
The fact that we, the public, voted for this attraction makes it ever so slightly cooler too.
Would you like to see this voting process be repeated at other parks considering new rides?
Let us know in the comments down below.
Thank you for watching, and we'll see you all next time.