Flight Deck, Steel roller coaster in Santa Clara, California
Flight Deck is a steel inverted roller coaster at California's Great America in Santa Clara. Its 2,260 ft (690 m) track reaches 102 ft (31 m) and 50 mph (80 km/h), with a vertical loop, a zero-gravity roll and a corkscrew. The track is red with white supports, and the station is themed as an aircraft carrier flight deck.
Flight Deck opened on March 20, 1993, as Top Gun, built by Bolliger & Mabillard and designed by Werner Stengel. Paramount, which had bought the park in 1992, themed it to the film, with an aircraft-carrier queue. After Cedar Fair bought the chain in 2006, the Top Gun theming was removed and the ride became Flight Deck.
The queue recreates an aircraft carrier: a tower, storage facilities, an engine, a mural of "Fightertown, USA" on one side and a carrier on the other, film soundtrack songs and voice clips, and ride operators in uniforms. The station represents the flight deck. The queue was revitalized in the 2021 off-season to restore the aircraft theming.
Flight Deck runs two trains of seven rows, four riders per row, each seat with an over-the-shoulder restraint. The circuit lasts about two minutes and twenty-six seconds and pulls 4.5 g-forces. The queue area, restored in the 2021 off-season, holds aircraft-carrier props and displays to look at while waiting.
After Super Bowl LVIII, the coaster was briefly renamed Soaring Chiefs to celebrate the Kansas City Chiefs' victory over the San Francisco 49ers. This temporary change shows how the ride connects to local sports moments in unexpected ways.
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