Tatsu

Tatsu opened in 2006 as Bolliger & Mabillard's flying coaster model, a design where riders are locked face-down in a prone position for the lift hill before rotating upright — and staying upright, chest toward the ground, for the rest of the ride. At 170 feet tall, it opened as the tallest and fastest flying coaster ever built, a title the design category rarely challenges given how few flying coasters exist worldwide.

The layout takes full advantage of the hillside site above the park, with pretzel loops and swooping turns engineered to pass within a few feet of the terrain at several points. That proximity to the ground is deliberate — B&M's flying coaster geometry is built specifically to exaggerate the sense of low-altitude flight, and Tatsu's back-of-park location gave designers more vertical terrain to work with than a flatter footprint would allow.

Named for a dragon spirit in Japanese mythology, Tatsu leans on that framing loosely rather than through built scenery, letting the flight sensation itself carry the theme. Nearly two decades after opening, it remains one of the largest flying coasters anywhere and a defining feature of the Rapids Camp Crossing skyline.