Project 2021/Drachen Spire: Intamin Multi-Launch Shuttle Giga Coaster [Cancelled]

Register or Login to Hide This Ad for Free!

General Information:​

"Project Drachen Spire," is a community-generated identifier for the Intamin-made, multi-launch, shuttle giga coaster that was originally slated to open at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 2021. The attraction is planned to utilize the currently-vacant land behind Verbolten, Festhaus Park—the former home of Drachen Fire.

The coaster's main layout—as leaked before the addition was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic—featured two launches, two spikes (one spiral, one vertical-ish), and a couple of banked turns. Drachen Spire was designed to run two trains by means of a pair of switch tracks connecting the primary, shuttle portion of the layout to the station platform.

Important Articles:​

  • Most Up-To-Date Understanding of the Layout:
    bgwfans.com

    Leaked Electrical Plan Depicts Busch Gardens Williamsburg's 2021 Roller Coaster in Detail – BGWFans

    If there’s a god, he’s up there laughing this afternoon. Why? Because BGWFans just had one of those classic sitcom moments. Yesterday, we published our painstakingly detailed analysis of the footer plan for what we believe is Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s 2021 roller coaster—seemingly a huge...
    bgwfans.com bgwfans.com
  • Most Recent Status Update:
    bgwfans.com

    Drachen Spire Height Waiver Extension Details – BGWFans

    Just over a week ago, we reported on the renewal of the notorious 355 foot Festhaus Park height waiver that was originally requested for the controversial, Intamin-made, multi-launch, giga, shuttle coaster we’ve dubbed Drachen Spire. In last week’s article, we were very careful to leave the door...
    bgwfans.com bgwfans.com

NoLimits Model of the Layout:​

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Direct Link to Embedded Media Source

Additional Coverage (Newest to Oldest):​

Previous Thread:​

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Click to expand...
sunchild said:
Technically a hyper, it just does the opposite and has a 210ft lift with a 135ft drop. The more I think about that the more lame it gets.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure its stated 210 foot height is a marketing stunt by Dollywood due to the mountain, because Wild Eagle doesn't really dip 65 feet below where the first drop was. Dollywood actually has a history of marketing gaffes like that. That's for another thread and another time, however.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SukaUniFl and ----------------------
GrandpaD said:
In thinking about what what said (and not) at the county meeting, I pondered one part where BGW said something about moving the high point 3 times to lessen the the whatever for Kingmill.

I know a small bit about coaster design (I played RCT2) and just "moving" would seem to me to be rather expensive CAD design time. It's not like they can say "ok, slide the lift hill over there" without spending a hell of a lot of time rearranging the entire layout. A lot goes into this because of topography, utilities (you'd assume the station would have to move, too) etc.

Now unless she was blowing smoke up Kingsmill's tush to appease them, I wonder just what the heck we're dealing with. This ain't RCT2 dropping a prebuilt coaster and building an entrance and exit.

Or it could all be because my sleeping pill kicked in.
Click to expand...
They most likely didn't have a full design yet though. From my experience on the engineering design side of the house, you phase the design so that you only have a plan set with just the basics at first (for coasters only the layout and basic info - not going into detailed design for footings, utilities, building design, etc.). This leaves more room for error if anything needs to be changed in the plan due to pushback, and there is much less risk of losing a lot of time put into the plans. Although they're much past the "napkin sketch" phase with consulting with the park for general layout and element requirements, they also don't have a 100% complete set of plans.

I also second what @Zachary said with regards to when these changes were made. For all we know, they could have been moving the layout around months ago.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SukaUniFl, BGWnut, Celticdog and 4 others
kingadam said:
They most likely didn't have a full design yet though. From my experience on the engineering design side of the house, you phase the design so that you only have a plan set with just the basics at first (for coasters only the layout and basic info - not going into detailed design for footings, utilities, building design, etc.). This leaves more room for error if anything needs to be changed in the plan due to pushback, and there is much less risk of losing a lot of time put into the plans. Although they're much past the "napkin sketch" phase with consulting with the park for general layout and element requirements, they also don't have a 100% complete set of plans.

I also second what @Zachary said with regards to when these changes were made. For all we know, they could have been moving the layout around months ago.
Click to expand...

100% on here @kingadam

I would say chances are BGW knows what type of layout they want (out and back v twister), the basics of the lift (length, angle, height), and the drop basics.

One of the more 'famous' unheard of stories that supports this is something I've been told of lore from Kennywood. Originally the park wanted the initial drop to be what is the current second drop. And arrow told them there basically wasn't the space for a lift and drop to do so. Arrow was the one to come up with the idea to have the lift at it's current location, to drop with a curve, and to second drop over 200'.

Another within PA 'how things change' during the layout phase. Skyrush was filed for with a 225' height waiver. But when they went to soil test, they realized that the top soil went a little deeper than they thought, and there were mis-calculations with Spring Creek's sediment deposit. So they just simply lowered all calculations with the height by about 13 feet, which is how much deeper they had to go to reach more stable ground.

So I'm with you they they know the basics of what it's going to be, then the actual end layout is going to be based on where certain "landmark" things end up (station, peak, lowest drop point).
 
  • Like
Reactions: SukaUniFl, GrandpaD, Zachary and 1 other person
Let also remember that Suzy said that the engineering team figured out how to adjust the layout to move the highest point. This lends to the point that Zachary, Warfelg and kingadam made. It most likely was a rough design that they tweaked as they were finalizing a layout.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Adam
netdvn said:
www.vagazette.com

Busch Gardens cans proposed Madrid attraction

Busch Gardens has pulled the plug on the proposed Busch Gardens Madrid attraction.
www.vagazette.com

Article doesn't really make it clear what project BGW canned, but Kingsmill has been fighting the park on a potential new attraction and BGW pulled the plug.

I'm assuming it's for the 2021 tower addition.
Click to expand...

They're referencing the 2017 height waiver application for something up to 315 feet. That project was 'scrapped' (who knows if P2021 is a reincarnation to that) for MMXX. They just never refiled because they stayed within the 150 feet of original application that the FAA and (through some hard digging) the state of Va requires.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Adam and Nicole
Lots of misinformation/incomplete interpretations going on lately... Sigh.
 
@ Zachary based on what you know, do you think Project 2021 is the same ride type as Project Madrid? Or do you think Project 2021 is something different?

Also, how does the initial layout design process work. Does the park draw out something and send to a manufacturer to see if they can make it work? Or does the manufacturer get some input on where the park might light different elements and then send the park a design that they created?
 
DJTLG said:
Also, how does the initial layout design process work. Does the park draw out something and send to a manufacturer to see if they can make it work? Or does the manufacturer get some input on where the park might light different elements and then send the park a design that they created?
Click to expand...

I've seen the 'behind the scenes' with other parks, and I can give some not BGW specifics to how this works.

So it starts with the park picking (1) General concept (inverted/launched/hyper/giga/woodie) of what they want. Within the park they start working on (and here's where the park engineers kick in) (2) The stats of what they want to reach. So they start to pick things like height, drop length, launch length, max speed, length of the ride. From there they (3) The pick location of the ride. One of the last steps that's "park only" is (4) Developing the ride envelope. This is picking the general path, the area it should stay within, the station location, peak height location. Then generally once they've done all of that they (4) contact manufacturers that can produce the product they want. Once the manufacturer has it they (5) develop the ride with everything the park is asking for, and return it for approval.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DJTLG, Adam, mountaineers and 2 others
Zachary said:
It's way too early to know. That said, I do believe Project 2021 is really big. You'll see why in a few minutes. ?
Click to expand...

That's what she said! Ok childish humor over.

I'm always excited for your (as in @Zachary and @Nicole) reporting on anything like this. You both are some pretty good wordsmiths and never really mince meaning or leave something hanging (unless you have to because of reasons of course).
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: tursiops, BGWnut, BenWilkerson and 1 other person
I land in LaGuardia in 2 hours (take off in 30minutes). What are the odds that I land to some BGW breaking news?
 
warfelg said:
I land in LaGuardia in 2 hours (take off in 30minutes). What are the odds that I land to some BGW breaking news?
Click to expand...

Well I'd be hopeful there's new before you take off
Zachary said:
It's way too early to know. That said, I do believe Project 2021 is really big. You'll see why in a few minutes. ?
Click to expand...


Zachary you know better than to tease us in the forums. Now we are just sitting here refreshing hoping you've posted something when all know it might be a while ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Consider Donating to Hide This Ad