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Listen to this episode of the “Coastin’ the Country with Marcus Leshock” podcast in the player above (Can’t see it? Click here). Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Not too long ago, I was talking to a fellow roller coaster enthusiast about all of the new rides that have been announced for next year, and all of the stuff that is rumored to be happening soon. And I said to him – “They’ve pretty much done everything there is to do at this point, right?”

Wrong.

I’m consistently amazed at how roller coaster designers continue to come up with concepts that take the traditional roller coaster, and make it anything but traditional. Over the last few weeks, we have the latest example and it comes from S&S Sansei Technologies. S&S is known for their work with air launch systems (think Power Tower at Cedar Point or Maxx Force at Six Flags Great America). They also introduced the 4D Free Fly coasters to the world, like The Joker at Six Flags Great America.

Now they have yet another new concept they’ll be pitching to theme parks. It’s a roller coaster they’re calling Axis, and when you see it, the name makes sense. Riders sit on cars that are on an arm that travels around the track. That car can rotate 360° horizontally.

Does that make sense?

The big struggle for me has been figuring out how to describe this thing! That’s why I wanted to get Tim Baldwin on the phone. He is an editor at Amusement Today and was one of the first people invited to S&S to ride this prototype.

You can listen to our full interview on this week’s episode of Coastin’ the Country in the player above, or download it anywhere you listen to podcasts. After talking to Tim, I cannot wait to ride this thing.

Here is the original Amusement Today video report from the S&S facility:

Here is an official video from S&S showing off the Axis concept:

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