 Welcome to the 8th installment in the series Whatever Happened 2. In this episode, we are taking a look at the Bolliger and Mabillard sit down looping model. I will be discussing why I think a few were built within 15 years, and why I think none were ever built after that, despite many of them having great popularity, as well as if I think we could see a new generation of standard sit down loopers from B&M being built in the future. This episode is also special, because I have a guest here to help me out on this one. You may know him. This is Chris from Airtime Thrills. Chris, take it away. In 1993, Bolliger and Mabillard, otherwise known as B&M, were still a pretty new company. They had just opened their first roller coaster known as Iron Wolf, which was a revolutionary stand-up design at Six Flags Great America in Gurney, Illinois, just three years prior in 1990. Of course, they would also introduce one of the most innovative roller coaster concepts ever seen in 1992 with Batman the Ride. Low at Six Flags Great America. This was a truly spectacular, never-before-seen model called the inverted coaster, in which riders would hang under the rails with their feet dangling freely while whipping through intense twists and inversions at a rapid pace. The inverted coaster would go on to become one of the most successful major steel coaster models ever produced, with 32 separate installations over the course of 22 years, with another slated to open in 2021. But what about the more traditional styles of sit-down looping roller coasters, which were popular at the time? In the early 1990s, aerodynamics was still known largely as the premier builder of looping roller coasters. In fact, aerodynamics manufactured the very first modern inverting coaster known as Corkscrew at Knotsbury Farm, which opened in 1975. Corkscrew featured two back-to-back Corkscrew inversions and would quickly catch on with many parks ordering their own variations of the classic aero loopers. Many of these were record breakers and very cutting edge for the time, often featuring as many as four, five, six, or even seven inversions. These mega loopers were jaw-dropping rides for their time, but often wouldn't provide a very comfortable ride experience, with many complaints of frequent head-banging against the hard over-the-shoulder restraints and the awkward hand-crafted transitions from element to element did not help matters either. Corkscrew would employ the use of pre-designed cookie-cutter elements on their coasters, which meant all of their inversions were the same size, only adjusted to be elevated higher or lower above ground to account for the forces. After B&M came onto the scene in 1990, capabilities of looping roller coasters would be pushed much further than ever before. With the assistance of new technology to aid the design of roller coasters, B&M would be able to accomplish much more with their updated designs, twisting the track in many ways never before seen. Busch Gardens Tampa was looking for a major new thrill machine to add to the park around this time as well. B&M would be hired to build their very first standard sit-down roller coaster, which would come to be known as Cumba, opening in the year 1993. Cumba would prove to put the park on the map for roller coaster enthusiasts, with the ride being praised to this day for its intense positive forces and great, visually spectacular use of dugout trenches. In 1995, Port Aventura in Spain would receive Dragon Con, a ride very similar to Cumba in layout, but featuring an extra inversion, bringing the world record at the time to eight. The last B&M sit-down looper of the 1990s would debut in 1999 at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida. This ride is known as Incredible Hulk and features seven inversions and a tire-propelled launch to begin the ride, launching passengers into a huge zero-G roll. This is a very unique version of the B&M looping model, still being one of only two B&M's built to incorporate a launch. The next sit-down looper named Wildfire would open in Branson, Missouri's Silver Dollar City for the 2001 season, featuring a pretty standard layout from B&M with five inversions, but would make great use of the tree-covered terrain in the area. Following Wildfire would be the longest gap between all of the ground-up B&M sit-down loopers, as well as the very last B&M sit-down looper to be built from the ground-up. This ride opened as Led Zeppelin the Ride in 2008, changed to Time Machine in 2009. This was the star attraction of the ill-fated Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, which of course also changed its name in 2009 to Freestyle Music Park before completely going under after the 2009 season. Led Zeppelin the Ride would sit standing but not operating for many years before finally being moved to the new for 2017 Dragon Park in Vietnam, and the coaster was renamed Dragon's Run, where it still operates. Led Zeppelin the Ride would be the very last B&M sit-down looper to ever be built, which means we haven't seen a brand new one designed in well over a decade. However, there is a near clone of Incredible Hulk being constructed to open with Universal Studios Beijing, currently slated to open in 2021, but this one will feature a Transformers theme. Should this Transformers coaster feature the standard sit-down looper trains as Incredible Hulk does, then this will be the very first newly constructed standard B&M sit-down looper to open in 13 years. So what happened to these sit-down loopers? The late 90s and early 2000s saw the introduction of many new radical coaster concepts, many of which are now viewed as being quite gimmicky. These new models were met with varying degrees of success. One of the very successful models to come to the forefront of the industry during this time was the B&M floorless coaster. I believe that the sit-down model was mainly rendered obsolete with the introduction of the floorless coaster by B&M first introduced in 1999. The floorless model wasn't much different than the sit-down model, and parks would begin to buy floorless models at a rapid pace. And in all honesty, why would they purchase the standard sit-down model when they could go for the floorless? The floorless coasters offer basically the same ride experience, the only major difference being the floorless trains not having, well, a floor. Although the floorless coasters are essentially just the B&M custom looping coaster with a slightly different train, many of the parks were able to really market these rides as a radically different type of ride experience than anything else that was around at the time, simply due to that one key difference. This was during the days when six flags would still purchase many coasters from B&M, so many of these floorless coasters were installed in the U.S. alone and served as a great addition to these parks in the very early 2000s. But getting back to the standard sit-down loopers. There is probably more than just the floorless coasters alone to blame for them never gaining traction. Even before the introduction of the floorless model, there were only two sit-down loopers to open within a period of six years. With the third sit-down looper, Incredible Hulk, opening less than two months after the first floorless opened. It seems like B&M themselves never put much of a focus on their standard loopers. Their very first creations, as mentioned prior, were the stand-up and inverted models. To add to that, B&M also introduced other revolutionary concepts around this time. Even though B&M are often criticized now for being too predictable, they are a company that introduced a lot of brand new ideas in the 90s that would go on to be wildly successful even to this day and would lead to many trying to emulate similar types of experiences. In addition to developing the modern stand-up design, inverted and floorless coasters, B&M also opened the very first dive coaster, Oblivion at Alton Towers, in 1998 and their first two hyper coasters in 1999 with Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America. They also improved flying coasters drastically with their very first flying coaster, Air at Alton Towers, opening in 2002. Overall, I do not believe the standard sit-down looper from B&M will make a surprising comeback in the future. Looking at the way the company has innovated with many unique takes on the traditional looping coasters, starting with the stand-ups and inverted coasters, all the way through to present day with their newest looping model in the wing coaster, it is clear that this Swiss company has always distinguished themselves as premier manufacturers of looping coasters by creating alternative types of ride experiences that stand out from the typical roller coasters with inversions which are offered by many other manufacturers. I would like to give a huge thanks to Chris from Airtime Thrills for helping me out with this video. If you haven't checked his channel out yet, you definitely need to do that. He has some of the best content on roller coasters and amusement parks out there. Let me know what you all thought about this episode and be sure to leave your suggestions for what I should talk about in the series next if you have anything in mind. Have you had the chance to ride any of these sit-down loopers? And how was your personal experience? I would love to hear it. If you enjoyed this video, be sure to like it, watch the first seven installments in a playlist on my channel, and like my page CoasterDaddy on Facebook as well as following me at CoasterDaddy official on Instagram. Thank you all so much for watching. This is CoasterDaddy. Bye.