Bolliger & Mabillard
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Bolliger and Mabillard (B&M) is a roller coaster manufacturer based in Monthey, Switzerland. The company was founded in the late 1980s by Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabillard and produced the first inverted rollercoaster in 1992 [1]. Bolliger & Mabillard also features the most steel coasters on the Amusement Today Golden Ticket Awards for the Top 50 Steel Coasters for 2005, 21/50 coasters are B&M's. [2]
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[edit] History
The company, named after Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabillard, pioneered the inverted roller coaster in 1992. They are well known among roller coaster enthusiasts for their "glass smooth" rides [3].
Bolliger and Mabillard worked for Intamin before founding their own company, B&M. During their time at Intamin they helped the company design their first stand-up coaster as well as contributing to other Intamin projects such as Z-Force at Six Flags Great America (Now Flashback at Six Flags Magic Mountain).
[edit] Operational roller coasters
Bolliger and Mabillard currently has 66 operating roller coasters worldwide.Their newest coaster is a flying coaster at Happy Valley, China. Also their 67th roller coaster, Griffon is under construction at Busch Gardens Europe
Four of Bolliger and Mabillard's rides are in the Amusement Today Golden Ticket Awards Top Ten list [4].
See Category:Bolliger & Mabillard roller coasters
[edit] Ride styles
Bolliger and Mabillard has been involved in developing new technologies and concepts in roller coasters, including the first inverted rollercoaster, Batman:The Ride. B&M also works closely with engineers Werner Stengel.
They currently have seven different ride styles to choose from: "stand-up", "inverted", "floorless", "flying", "mega coaster", "dive machine" and "sit-down" coaster.
Bolliger and Mabillard has been renowned for its reliability, low maintenance and near-perfect safety record [citation needed]. Reportedly, when Nemesis ride engineer John Wardley, about to test the roller coaster for the first time, asked Walter Bolliger, "What if the coaster stalls? How will we get the trains back to the station?", Bolliger replied, "Our coasters never stall. They always work perfectly the first time." True to his word, the roller coaster executed its first lap of the track exactly as planned.
[edit] Features
One feature of Bolliger and Mabillard coasters that is almost universal throughout their product line, and almost exclusive to B&M, is an element known as a "pre-drop". This is a short drop after the top of the lift hill and before the start of the first drop, designed to reduce tension on the lift chain. The flat section between the pre-drop and the first drop serves as a shelf to carry the weight of the train, reducing related stresses on the chain. By comparison, on most coasters without a pre-drop, the weight of the train as it begins its descent tends to pull on the lift chain, as the latter half of the train is still being lifted by the chain at this point.
Bolliger & Mabillard is also one of the only coaster manufacturers that uses four-across seating on their trains. Each car has a single row of four seats, and a train normally consists of seven to nine cars. All of their coaster models except the Dive Machine use this configuration. The Dive Machine uses eight-across seating with two or three rows of seats. However, on one of B&M's newest roller coasters, Griffon, the cars are ten seats wide, a record for a full circuit roller coaster. Most other manufacturers use two-across cars with two or three rows per car.
Another notable feature of Bolliger and Mabillard roller coasters is that they make use of box-section track: the running rails for the coaster are connected to a box-section spine, as opposed to a circular spine used by many other manufacturers. Because of this, when a train travels round the track it creates a distinctive "roar", which is unique to this style of track. Some B&M coasters, such as Talon at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom and Dueling Dragons at Islands of Adventure, have their track filled with sand to reduce this noise, resulting in an unusually quiet and hollow sound.
B&M generally does not use powered launches on their coasters due to perceived problems with reliability; they prefer gravity-powered rollercoasters. The only B&M launched rollercoaster in existence is The Incredible Hulk Coaster at Universal's Islands of Adventure, which has a pinch wheel propelled launch. Even so, this task was given to another company that specializes in powered rollercoasters.
[edit] List of B&M rides
See Category:Bolliger & Mabillard roller coasters
[edit] Overview
Since their first coaster, Iron Wolf, a stand-up coaster at Six Flags Great America, they have designed 64 more rides. They are responsible for groundbreaking rides like Batman The Ride at Six Flags Great America, the worlds first inverted looping coaster. Kumba and Montu at Busch Gardens Africa, Raptor and Mantis at Cedar Point, Top Gun at Paramount's Great America and Paramount's Carowinds, Hulk Coaster at Universal's Islands of Adventure, Nemesis at Alton Towers, Silver Star at Europa Park, Goliath in Montreal's La Ronde and many others. The company also built the trains for Psyclone, a wooden coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
Bolliger and Mabillard was the first company to produce a coaster with a vertical drop with Oblivion at Alton Towers, England. In B&M's terms, this type of coaster is called a "dive machine". There are only three dive machines in the world as of 2006; the other two are Diving Machine G5 at Janfusun Fancyworld in Taiwan and SheiKra at Busch Gardens in Tampa. (Bolliger & Mabillard are constructing a fourth dive machine, Griffon at Busch Gardens Europe, which will be the first dive machine with floorless trains and is scheduled to open in spring 2007.)
Bolliger & Mabillard also created their own version of Vekoma's flying coaster with AIR at Alton Towers and Superman: Ultimate Flight at several Six Flags parks. Their latest flying coaster, Tatsu, opened in spring 2006 and has been widely praised.
