X-Flight

X-Flight opened on May 16, 2012, becoming the fourth Bolliger & Mabillard wing coaster built anywhere in the world and only the second in the United States, following Dollywood's Wild Eagle by less than two months. Six Flags Great America was the first park in the country to publicly announce plans for the format, clearing the former sites of the Splashwater Falls flume and Great American Raceway go-kart track to make room for it.

The wing coaster format seats riders in pairs suspended on either side of the track, with no structure above or below them, creating an unusually exposed sensation as the train banks through turns. X-Flight's signature moment comes when the train speeds directly at a custom-built air traffic control tower structure before executing a last-instant vertical flip through a cut-out opening known as a keyhole element — a near-miss illusion that became the ride's defining marketing image. The 3,000-foot layout packs in five inversions across a compact footprint, opening with a 180-degree dive drop off the 120-foot lift hill.

As Six Flags Great America's 14th coaster at the time, X-Flight cemented the park's reputation as B&M's most frequent American test bed for new coaster formats, following Iron Wolf (B&M's first coaster ever, 1990) and Batman: The Ride (the first inverted coaster, 1992). The wing coaster format has since spread modestly to other parks, but X-Flight remains one of only a handful in North America.