 In 1999, Aerodynamics was on the brink of bankruptcy, and with new kids on the block and much more competition than ever before, times were changing for the amusement park industry. Aerodynamics had to come up with a solution quickly. Right around this time, a young engineer joined Aero's team and would eventually work his way up to head engineer. This engineer's name is Alan Schilke, who is now known for having quite the portfolio of roller coaster designs to his name, but before he made a name for himself, he would help Aero Dynamics during their final years to deliver some of the most outstanding and technologically advanced rides the industry had ever seen. One such ride would be a steel roller coaster for a then small park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, who wanted a brand new signature attraction to take their park to the next level. Tennessee Tornado would be a custom Aero looping coaster, but this one was unique from all of the other Aero custom loopers of the time, most of which are now defunct. With Schilke's expertise, Tennessee Tornado would be an early testament to the kind of quality rides that he could produce. This Aero looper would use a track design which was different than every other Aero looper at the time and would ultimately lead to a much more pleasant ride experience than was typically found on these Aero loopers. This is my review of Tennessee Tornado at Dollywood. Tennessee Tornado is tucked all the way back in the park. After going through the main entrance, you will either make a left or right and trek all the way beyond Wild Eagle or Blazing Fury depending on which way you go. Upon approaching the entrance to the ride, you will see the massive steel creation looming above and weaving its way through the mountains. It is really quite impressive to look at. As you enter through a disheveled shack and make your way through the queue, you will board the Aero trains with the classic over the shoulder restraints. Upon leaving the station and making a turn to the left and going through a shed, you will climb up the mountain on the massive 163 foot tall lift hill. Cresting the top of the hill, you will traverse a small drop curving to the right then up and down into a tunnel for the main 128 foot drop which has an awesome head chopper effect with the tunnel and a support. You will also get a nice pop of airtime over the drop and you will also achieve the top speed of 63 miles per hour. Following this, there is a huge 110 foot tall vertical loop which provides a good amount of positive Gs at the bottom. Before hauling through a nice rising bank turn to the right, then you will dive back down into the mountain and go through the second vertical loop and as you can see, you are absolutely hauling here. Once again, very good positive Gs. Following the second loop, you will fly through the third and final inversion of the ride which is a sidewinder which provides a good amount of positive force as well. As you exit the sidewinder, you will quickly go through a small bank to right hand turn then make a small rise up into the final brake run where you will get a nice pop of floater air if you are in the front. You are still traveling at a great speed as you fly into the brakes with much momentum. One obvious thing to take away when analyzing the layout of Tennessee Tornado is how short it is in length. You are traveling at a pretty solid top speed of 63 miles per hour along a pretty modest 2682 feet of track. As a result, the ride experience from drop to break is only about 32 seconds long. So yes, Tennessee Tornado is a very short ride and there are only a few real elements, three inversions, and a couple bank turns. However, what this ride does with its elements is great. Nothing seems out of place, it is paced extremely well throughout, and most of the elements are full of great positive Gs. This ride by nature is not meant to be an airtime focused experience, so there are only a couple decent moments of airtime. Compared to all of the other looping coasters made by Aerodynamics, this is a very unique layout in that it is a terrain coaster, following the mountain very closely as you may expect from Dollywood. The elements themselves though are nothing too special. There are two vertical loops, although these feel very different from the other aero loops as they are huge in diameter, instead of being the smaller cookie cutter loops typically found on arrows, which are all one standard size and raised up very high off the ground in moments of high speed. The sidewinder is a bit different, starting out like a huge vertical loop, but then pulling out like a corkscrew to the left. It doesn't feel too drastically different though when you are on the ride. Of course, the layout also has a couple bank turns which help to transition very nicely from one element to another. These are much better than a lot of the older aero loopers as well, which often would feature very janky turns into pre-designed elements, such as the uniform sized vertical loops and corkscrews. The overall design and engineering of this ride is remarkably improved upon in comparison to the older aero loopers that preceded it. When I look at other aero custom loopers I've been on, such as Vortex and especially Anaconda, they both feature some weird twists and turns that are a bit out of place and seem like they are pure filler. Tennessee Tornado cuts all of the fat, instead being very straight and to the point. The ride hits you with some pretty good positive g-force and before you know it, it is done. Of course, due to the improvements made at the time, Tennessee Tornado is also an incredibly smooth ride, even with the classic over-the-shoulder restraints from aerodynamics. As mentioned, the track designed for this coaster is an improvement of the old aero track and you absolutely feel the difference. The profiling is so much smoother and there really isn't any roughness to the ride at all as I found from getting at least 7 or 8 rides. I did marathon the ride at one point and I did notice that after about 3 rides I had the slightest bit of a headache and I think that can be attributed to a very subtle vibration of the cars against the track. Although the track is extremely smooth, I feel as though the intensity of the ride does amplify the vibrations of the car on the track a bit, but it really is not bad. Tennessee Tornado is a ride that is far from perfect, but despite its flaws it still provides an exhilarating, smooth, and fun ride experience and for sure stands the test of time as one of aerodynamics best creations in my opinion. I would have liked to see more added to the ride as it just feels over too quickly. I feel that if there had been maybe an extra 500 feet or so of track and maybe a couple more elements to use up more of that energy, this ride would only excel even more. Maybe this is due to budgetary reasons at the time, but nonetheless it is worth noting. Over 20 years since opening and even after the same park has received more modern and thrilling coasters in their lineup, even bringing back Ellen Schilke to work his magic once again, I strongly believe that Tennessee Tornado still holds up as one of the best coasters at Dollywood and I would love to see it thrilling coaster fans for decades to come. My final score for Tennessee Tornado is a very solid 8 out of 10. What are your thoughts on this ride and would you consider it one of Arrow's finest moments and what more could they have done with custom looping coasters if the company had lasted well beyond 2002? Let me know all of your thoughts and I will see you in the next review. If you enjoyed this review be sure to like it and subscribe as well as check out many others in a coaster review playlist on my channel, like my page CoasterDaddy on Facebook and follow me at CoasterDaddyOfficial on Instagram. Thanks for watching, this is CoasterDaddy, bye.