First Looping Coaster?

[jimmiemac02]

My friend posted on Facebook that while at SFMM she rode the "the world's first ever looping coaster." What is the validity of this statement? I did do some research and found that there were looping coasters in France and one at Coney Island before the one at SFMM.

[simaticable]

The first modern looping coaster is Corkscrew at Silverwood which used to be at Knott's Berry Farm. Revolution at SFMM opened a while after Corkscrew. Technically, she is correct because Revolution was the first modern day coaster to feature a vertical loop, but it wasn't the first modern day looping coaster in the world.

[jimmiemac02]

So by that you are implying that the one at Coney Island and the ones in Paris do not count as looping coasters?

[SharkTums]

^No, it's exactly what he wrote, that they're the first MODERN looping coasters.

 

The ones you're talking about are not of modern times and very different. No one alive today rode those.

[LiMiT]

The extremely old looping roller coasters were essentially set up like this: \o/ The car rolled down one slope, and the riders prayed that the vehicle they were in would get through the loop safely because there were no upstop wheels...so of course there was a long time lapse in which no looping coasters were built because of the safety hazards of the older ones.

[gerstlaueringvar]

Has the antique looping wooden coaster's car ever fallen off?

[LiMiT]

With no upstop wheels, I would say that it was likely and frequent. Every train is a different weight and there's other factors that affect the performance of the ride. So yeah. It probably happened. Why else would production stop on these?