Alton Towers adventure park to get Galactica VR roller coaster

Alton Towers is an adventure park in Staffordshire in the UK that has roller coasters and other amusement rides in it. The park has announced that it has a new roller coaster that is set to open soon. The new coaster is called Galactica and it is meant to simulate a flight through space.

The coaster is said to be the first that combines VR with a real roller coaster ride and the passengers aboard the trains that run on the ride will wear VR headsets. On the headsets will play virtual reality video that shows a journey across galaxies with twists and turns in the video that coincide with the turns and falls of the coaster.

Passengers will lay face down on the ride and be subject to 3.5gs, more than astronauts experience during rocket launches according to park owners. Each of the three trains that operate at once on the coaster will contain 28 passengers. The track length is 2,755 feet and the biggest drop is 66 feet. The top speed for the coaster is 47mph and the ride lasts 189 seconds.

The ride has a capacity of 1500 passengers per hour. To get the ride up and running as quickly and cheaply as possible the park re-engineered and existing roller coaster called Air that opened in 2002.

SOURCE: BBC