#skyrush

[chroniccoasters]

Hersheypark Intamin dump. It's insane to me that the chocolate theme park has such a wild selection of Intamin coasters, including 1 of 2 Intamin wing coasters in the world

[thrillrid3s]

【ｓｋｙｒｕｓｈ】

[tacoma-narrows]

Tac Talks Coasters - Post 159: #11

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Skyrush at Hersheypark!

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Opened: 2012 Manufacturer: Intamin Height: 200 ft (61 m) Drop: 212 ft (65 m) Speed: 75 mph (121 kph) Length: 3,600 ft (1,100 m) My most recent ride: 2025

I've talked a lot about different rides that I've called relentless as I've been going through this. Rides like Mine Blower, Kumba, RailBlazer. But Skyrush might be the ride most befitting of that label out of anything I've ridden. There is, quite literally, nothing else in the world like Skyrush. Even its sister coaster, Flying Aces at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi in the UAE from what I've heard is not nearly as extreme as Skyrush is. The closest ride I would compare Skyrush to would be Pantherian at Kings Dominion, but in some regards, Skyrush still surpasses that ride in the realm of laterals and airtime.

Located right near the front of Hersheypark, Skyrush makes a statement as you come in. It's gigantic lift hill held up by only two support columns is immediately eye catching, and then seeing the unique trains flying around the course builds anticipation all the more. Skyrush's trains are sort of halfway between a B&M Wing coaster like GateKeeper for example, and a traditional coaster train. There are two seats in the middle, positioned above the track like a normal coaster train, but then there are also two wing seats that hang over the edge of the track on either side.

The experience with Skyrush starts in the station, where as of 2024, the ride has a general aviation theme. Prior to that year, Skyrush didn't really have any theme, but I love what they did for it alongside the new trains Hersheypark gave the ride (which trust me, I will get to). The station now has great new colors, runway lights on the ceiling above the train, and different announcements you hear over the loudspeaker that sound like airplane PA announcements haha. My favorite is when they say "Flight 2012 is clear for takeoff" immediately before dispatching the train, with 2012 of course being the year the ride opened :3

But as soon as you dispatch, a cable lift pulls you up the very steep lift hill super quickly. The speed of this lift hill always catches me off guard regardless of how many times I ride Skyrush lol. But once you hit the peak, you are thrown into one of the craziest first drops on the planet. Some people have described Skyrush's first drop feeling like a car crash, and y'know what, I don't entirely disagree lmao. I don't know what it is, but the drop on this ride almost has like a kink to it or something. About halfway down, it's like the angle suddenly gets a little steeper before pulling out. It's sort of similar to Iron Rattler's drop that I talked about yesterday, just with airtime rather than laterals.

After the first drop, you pull out into a very tight and very forceful turn that hugs the ground before flying into a crazy camelback airtime hill. The positives on this pullout from the drop contrasted with the insane ejector airtime you get from the drop and following camelback show you what's to come on Skyrush. It shows that this is a ride of two extremes: very strong positive Gs and ridiculous ejector airtime. For the most part, I'm going to refrain from breaking the ride down element by element, because most of the layout is the same pattern of crazy positives followed by shocking ejector airtime over and over again lol. The ride's positioning and location also makes it a really cool experience. Skyrush is literally built on top of Comet, and then the rest of the layout takes place over Spring Creek. That makes the low sweeping turns that Skyrush has feel all the faster and more exciting since you feel like you're skimming over the water.

For a long time though, Skyrush was one of the most polarizing coasters in the world, and almost everything about that had to do with the trains. Upon opening in 2012 and for a long time thereafter, Skyrush's trains had what were widely considered to be some of the worst restraints in the coaster world. The lap bars came down over your head and sat on your thighs at an angle. There was padding, but not a whole lot of give to that padding, and the angle of the lap bar meant that a lot of the forces from the ride's crazy airtime were concentrated in one spot on your thighs. Then, during moments of high positive Gs, the lap bar would come down further and harder on your lap. This gave Skyrush the infamous nickname Thighcrush. It led many people, both enthusiasts and the general public, to have dramatically differing opinions on the ride depending on their experience with it. Personally, I never found those restraints as bad as some other people did, but they were definitely uncomfortable, especially when sitting on the brake run at the end of the ride.

But thankfully, Hersheypark listened to their fans and got upgraded trains from Intamin for the 2024 season. These new trains had much better lap bars that were more ergonomic and better contoured to your lap, so they didn't concentrate all the force in one spot. These trains also offered better support to the sides of your body, so you don't get thrown around as harshly during the ride's wicked laterals. I thought these trains were a big improvement to the ride in my experience.

Though even with the improved trains, Skyrush does have a few other minor flaws. The main one is that the ride is not perfectly smooth. It's by no means the roughest thing in the world of course, the train tracks most of the layout very smoothly. It's mainly in moments of high positive Gs in the valleys that you really notice it. The rattle is even more pronounced if you sit on a wing seat as well. The shakiness alongside with just how nuts the ride is in general are the two main reasons that I'm sort of glad Skyrush isn't longer lol. That's not something I usually say about any coaster, but on Skyrush, I feel like if it were significantly longer, it would be almost too much. This is a ride that I don't think I'd be able to get more than like, 2 or 3 consecutive rides on without having to take a breather lmao.

But in the end, Skyrush is a phenomenal ride and I think it's so awesome that Hersheypark has this thing. Like I said towards the start, there's really nothing in the world like it and it just adds to Hershey's ridiculously stacked lineup. A lot of enthusiasts put Skyrush as their favorite coaster at the park, and I can absolutely understand that. But for me, it takes the bronze medal. What other two coasters at Hersheypark top Skyrush for me? Well you'll just have to wait and see as we head into my top 10 :3

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! Keep an eye out for tomorrow's coaster!

[flojector]

only one of these hypers was running today :(

[jarojagr]

some pics i took at hersheypark last week 📸

[clamcollector]

is that a knife or is youre penise is knife

[linoone]

[newenglandcoasterman]

me when the rollercoaster has no supports 😳😳😳🐎