Roller Coaster Set to Bring Mega Screams

A new roller coaster in Texas is breaking records as the tallest and fastest amusement park ride of its kind.

Pete Carmichael, president of Six Flags Over Texas, poses in front of Tormenta Rampaging Run, the new roller coaster that’s set to break records.

A new roller coaster set to hurtle onto the amusement park scene is breaking records as the world’s first giga dive coaster! The ride will open at Six Flags Over Texas, an amusement park in Arlington, Texas.

The thrillingly named Tormenta Rampaging Run will be “the tallest, fastest, longest, first-and-only giga dive coaster in the world,” says the amusement park website.

A giga coaster is a type of roller coaster that reaches above 300 feet (91 meters) in height. Designed for speed, these extreme roller coasters are rare, with fewer than 10 in operation worldwide. Rarer still are the strata coasters, which reach more than 400 feet (122 meters) high.

Visitors at Ferrari Land, a theme park in Spain, ride a roller coaster called Red Force.

With an initial height of 309 feet (94 meters), Tormenta Rampaging Run will join the giga coaster list. More than that, it will be a giga dive coaster, meaning it has a near-vertical first drop. In fact, Tormenta Rampaging Run has a beyond-vertical drop of 95 degrees, so the riders are even a little upside down before a breath-taking 285-foot (87-meter) nosedive that sends the cars zooming through the rest of the course. It will also have something special: it is the first giga roller coaster to have an inversion, or a loop where the coaster cars go upside down.

The Steel Dragon 2000 roller coaster is at Nagashima Spa Land, an amusement park in Japan.

According to Six Flags Over Texas, the new coaster has taken these six world records:

Tallest Dive Coaster: 309 feet (94 meters)
Highest 95 Degree Beyond Vertical Drop: 285 feet (87 meters)
Fastest Dive Coaster: 87 miles per hour (140 kilometers per hour)
Highest Immelmann Inversion: 218 feet (66 meters)
Tallest Vertical Coaster Loop: 179 feet (55 meters)
Longest Dive Coaster: 4,199 feet (1,280 meters)

Tormenta Rampaging Run was expected to open on June 26 of this year, but the amusement park has extended the testing process and has yet to release a new opening date. You might say that the uncertainty has eager passengers hanging in suspense!

Did You Know?

Roller coaster loops must be oval shaped, not circular, to avoid extreme g-force (G) spikes on passengers! Some early coasters, like the one in the photo below, were circular, exerting up to 14 Gs of force and making riders very uncomfortable. For reference, astronauts in a spaceship launch will experience about 3 Gs of force!

Slide the arrow to compare a circular roller coaster with an oval coaster.

Detroit Publishing Company/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-det-4a05650), © Victor Lochon—Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

The First Roller Coaster Thrills

Public Domain

Before there were roller coasters, there were wooden ice slides. They weren’t very safe.

It may seem impossible to believe that people have been riding roller coasters for more than 200 years, but it’s true! Though they may seem tame compared to today’s roller coasters, those early designs gave thrill-seekers a rush.

In 1400s Russia, people rode down giant ice-covered slides inside carved tree trunks, much like sledding. In 1784, one of these slides was changed to have carriages that fit into grooved tracks. The carriages could travel the ups and downs of the tracks after building speed on the first large downhill slope.

Some historians believe that the type of ride shown here is the earliest roller coaster.

These “Russian Mountains” caught on in Paris, France, and in 1804, small wheels were added to the carriages—a development some historians point to as the birth of the roller coaster. But these rides caused a lot of injuries when the wheeled sleds lost control. By 1817, Parisians could ride the Belleville Mountains, a ride that had locking wheels and a continuous track. From there, roller coasters started to take off.

The Switchback Railway was designed to carry coal. It became a fun ride.

One of the first roller coasters in the United States wasn’t for humans at all—it was for transporting coal! In 1827, a man named Josiah White built a rail track for a coal mining company in Pennsylvania. Called the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway, the tracks supported open cars that carried coal 9 miles (14 kilometers) down a hill into a town for unloading. The cars and tracks relied on gravity to deliver the coal down the mountain. At some point, people started paying 50 cents to ride the coal cars down the slope. This invention became the prototype for U.S. roller coasters, and by 1900, there were hundreds of such rides all over the country.

Let’s Go to the Fair!

Every summer, people around the world are drawn to local fairs and expositions with amusement park rides, tasty food, shows, and even new technology or products on display.

Learn more about the long history of fairs at Britannica.

WORD OF THE WEEK

exhilaration

PART OF SPEECH:

noun

Definition:

: a feeling of great happiness and excitement

Definitions provided by

Criss Cross

Can you figure out where each word belongs?

In Case You Missed It

Researchers have uncovered the deepest known whale graveyard. Located in the Indian Ocean, the area holds ancient whale fossils.

July 2, 2026

Is a sidewalk ever hot enough to cook an egg? A fun annual tradition has people putting that theory to the test!

June 25, 2026

This annual cheese rolling race in England has racers bumping and rolling for a chance at victory.

June 17, 2026

Middle school teacher Freddie Hendricks received a Tony Award for his role changing lives through theater.

June 12, 2026

How to Cite This Page

Here is how to cite this page using the MLA style. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some differences. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.

“In the News: Roller Coaster Set to Bring Mega Screams.” Britannica School, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 12 July 2026. https://news.eb.com/level2/roller-coaster-set-to-bring-mega-screams Accessed 13 July 2026 [Replace this date with today’s date.]