Carowinds · Operating · 1999

Afterburn

113 ft · 62 mph

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Bolliger & Mabillard113 ft · 62 mph

This B&M inverted coaster hangs riders below the track for six inversions — a vertical loop, an Immelmann, a zero-g roll, a rare double-inverting batwing, and a closing corkscrew — reached from a 113-foot first drop at up to 62 mph. It opened in 1999 as Top Gun - The Jet Coaster, a fighter-jet theme built after an earlier Godzilla concept fell through, and kept that name until Cedar Fair's 2008 rebrand to Afterburn. It's since placed among Amusement Today's top-50 steel coasters more than a dozen times.

Specifications

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Ride profile

Scaled against Carowinds's operating coasters

Steel

Park intensity

Height

113 ft

#4 of 14 at Carowinds

Height113 ft

Speed62 mph

Length2,956 ft

Inversions6

Ride experience

First drop113.00 ft
Inverted
Multi Element
Steel

Ride details

Min height

4'6"

Drop

113 ft

Specs from sixflags.com

Learn more

All guides

Inverted coasters

Trains hang beneath the track so your feet dangle — B&M made the style famous.

Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M)

Swiss manufacturer known for smooth inverts, hypers, dives, and wing coasters.

Spaghetti bowl layouts

Tight intertwined track where multiple layers cross — visual chaos and quick transitions.

Tubular steel track basics

Round rail stacked and welded — the default modern coaster structure.

History

Sourced timeline and background for Afterburn.

Former names & versions

AfterburnCurrent
2008–present · Bolliger & Mabillard
Top Gun - The Jet Coaster
1999–2007 · Bolliger & Mabillard

Timeline

1999
Top Gun - The Jet Coaster opens
B&M inverted coaster debuts themed to the movie Top Gun after an earlier Godzilla concept was scrapped.
Source
2008
Renamed Afterburn
Cedar Fair drops the licensed Top Gun name after buying the park from Paramount, rebranding the ride Afterburn.
Source

Background

Afterburn opened in 1999 as Top Gun - The Jet Coaster, a B&M inverted design that was originally supposed to carry a Godzilla theme before the studio pivoted to Tom Cruise fighter-jet branding instead. Riders sit in ski-lift-style trains suspended below the track, so the inversions play out with nothing but open air below their dangling feet.

The layout packs six inversions into a compact 2,956-foot footprint: a vertical loop, an Immelmann named for the real fighter-pilot maneuver, a zero-g roll, a rare double-inverting "batwing," and a closing corkscrew, all reached from a 113-foot first drop at speeds up to 62 mph. When Cedar Fair bought the park from Paramount and lost the rights to the Top Gun license, the ride was renamed Afterburn for the 2008 season and has kept that name since.

More than two decades on, Afterburn is still one of the more highly regarded B&M inverted coasters in the Southeast, having placed in Amusement Today's Golden Ticket Awards top-50 steel rankings more than a dozen times.

History primarily sourced from sixflags.com. See also our data policy.