Superman Ultimate Flight

Superman: Ultimate Flight opened at Six Flags Great America on May 3, 2003, the third of three near-identical B&M flying coasters Six Flags installed within about a year, following debuts at Six Flags Over Georgia in 2002 and Six Flags Great Adventure just weeks earlier in April 2003. The Gurnee installation took over a section of the park's parking lot after the removal of ShockWave, an Arrow Dynamics looping coaster the park confirmed would not return for the 2003 season.

Bolliger & Mabillard's flying coaster format — only their second such design, following Air (now Galactica) at Alton Towers in 2002 — seats riders sitting upright to board before hydraulically raising the entire train into a face-down, head-first flying position for the actual ride. Superman: Ultimate Flight's signature moment is what the park called the first-ever "pretzel loop," an inverted loop shape that lifts riders 78 feet before diving them close to the ground, capped by a 360-degree in-line roll just before the brake run.

The ride let Six Flags Great America market a fourth B&M installation alongside Iron Wolf, Batman: The Ride, and Raging Bull, deepening the park's identity as a proving ground for the Swiss manufacturer's format innovations. Two decades later, it remains one of only three Superman: Ultimate Flight installations in North America, giving riders in the Chicago area rare access to a flying-coaster experience most U.S. parks still don't offer.