Firehawk - King's Island - Cincinnati, Ohio
Posted by: 
Lord Elwood
N 39° 20.559 W 084° 15.793
16S E 735853 N 4358374
Firehawk (Often stylized FireHawk or FIREHAWK) is a steel Vekoma flying roller coaster operating at Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio.
Waymark Code: WMCGMG
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 09/05/2011
Views: 7
Originally built at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure (later to become Geauga Lake) as X-Flight in 2001, the ride was manufactured by Vekoma. Due to low attendance at Geauga Lake, and fans of Kings Island wanting a new thrill attraction, Cedar Fair dismantled the ride after the 2006 season, and sent it south to Kings Island. In February 2007, Kings Island announced that the ride was coming to the park, set to open Memorial Day weekend. X-Flight's neon green track and dark gray supports were re-painted red and steel gray respectively. The ride's trains are now yellow and red. Firehawk officially opened as scheduled on May 26, 2007, in time for Memorial Day weekend. The second track however, did not open until the following weekend, on June 9, 2007. The ride was originally meant to recline on the lift hill, rather than in the station, and return to the upright position prior to re-entering the station. During the ride's first year at Geauga Lake, there were three trains, but ever since, there are only two trains on the ride. The third train has become a parts donor for the first two trains.
The ride itself has three true inversions (one vertical loop and two inline twists), but is often advertised by the park as having eight (which including the two lie-to-fly elements and the two fly-to-lie elements and an over-banked turn). The lie-to-fly elements occur at the top of the lifthill and just after the loop, whereas the fly-to-lie elements occur just before the loop and just before the final break run. Due to each fly-to-lie and lie-to-fly being 180 degrees, some sources count two of them to equal one full inversion (though they're not consecutive) and thus, label the ride as having five inversions. It's obviously difficult to officially determine the number of inversions since the position usually considered a full inversion on most roller coasters is the position riders are held in for the duration of the ride on FireHawk.
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