Tennessee Tornado

The Tennessee Tornado is a roller coaster at Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in the United States. It debuted April 17, 1999, and was Dollywood's first major coaster expansion as well as one of Arrow Dynamics' last major coasters. The ride opened in a valley location previously occupied by Thunder Express, an Arrow Dynamics Runaway Mine Train roller coaster relocated from Six Flags St. Louis in 1989 and opened in 2002 at Magic Springs and Crystal Falls.

Tennessee Tornado has several unique features not found on other Arrow Dynamics looping coasters. At the time of the coaster's construction it had been several years since the company had last built a sit-down looping coaster, so the designers created new elements and track designs for the ride, including two overbanked curves and a 110-foot-tall (34 m) "Spiro loop", the largest inversion on any Arrow Dynamics coaster.

Tennessee Tornado is also unique in that it uses a tubular steel beam support structure similar to that of Bolliger & Mabillard roller coasters, rather than the more typical Arrow Dynamics scaffolding-style supports found on rides such as Carolina Cyclone at Carowinds. This kind of support structure was first used on the defunct Drachen Fire at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

During the 2008 operating season, Dollywood added video cameras to the first three seats of the trains. During the ride, cameras record the riders. At the ride's exit, riders are able to view their video and upload it to YouTube.

Read more about Tennessee Tornado:  Ride Elements, Gallery

Famous quotes containing the word tornado:

    The sumptuous age of stars and images is reduced to a few artificial tornado effects, pathetic fake buildings, and childish tricks which the crowd pretends to be taken in by to avoid feeling too disappointed. Ghost towns, ghost people. The whole place has the same air of obsolescence about it as Sunset or Hollywood Boulevard.
    Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)