History
The idea for Air came to fruition after many years of planning, and construction started towards the beginning of 2001. Numerous advertisements for the attraction were placed around the park towards the end of the same year. In early 2002, testing began on one of the world's most technologically advanced rides ever made, and the ride opened on March 2002 at a cost of £12million. It holds the title of one of the most expensive rides jointly with Oblivion at Alton Towers, which was built at a cost of £12 million. Special crash test dummies were brought in to aid with testing. The passengers of the first ride were the manufacturers and the designers. After more adjustments, the ride was open to the public in 2002.
Early difficulties with unreliability were reduced towards the end of the first year, and problems are now rare.
When it was launched, ride designers said that the way forward for roller coasters was to go higher and faster. Air's popularity suggested that this was not the case, and that roller coaster enthusiasts seek unique, different ride experiences, not just bigger and taller thrill rides.
The ride has also become a popular attraction at Alton Towers, most likely due to Air's distinctive 'flying' roller coaster design, which is incomparable with other roller coasters at Alton Towers.
The ride's project name was Secret Weapon 5 (SW5), which followed other similar project names at the park. SW4 was Oblivion, SW3 was Nemesis and SW1 and 2 were ideas not implemented on the site of Nemesis. SW6 was the code name for the park's latest roller coaster, Thirteen, which opened in March 2010 whilst SW7 will open on the site of the former Black Hole coaster in 2013.
Read more about this topic: Air (roller Coaster)
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