Volcano: The Blast Coaster was a launched inverted roller coaster at Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia. Designed by Werner Stengel and built by Intamin, it was the world's first inverted roller coaster to feature a linear induction motor and was the only Intamin LIM-launched inverted coaster to complete a full circuit until the 2019 opening of Dueling Dragons at Guangzhou Sunac Land. It opened to the public on August 3, 1998. A portion of it was enclosed inside a man-made volcano. It permanently closed after the end of the 2018 season and was torn down early the next year.
History
Volcano was designed around a dormant attraction originally known as The Lost World and later as Smurf Mountain. Declining popularity towards the end of the 1980s led to the removal of the mountain's last two rides in 1995 and cast doubt on the area's future. On July 22, 1997, Paramount Parks announced plans to revitalize the mountain by making it the future site of a new roller coaster. In August 1997, Volcano: The Blast Coaster, was announced. LIM technology was still somewhat new and the ride had many bugs in the launch system. This issue was not new to the park, having encountered similar problems with the nearby Flight of Fear. Volcano had a soft opening on August 3, 1998. The ride officially opened on August 15, 1998. During the 1998 season, the ride operated at half-capacity, with every other row loaded. In 1999, the bugs were fixed when a second launch was installed and Volcano was running at full capacity. In 2005 and 2010, Volcano's structure was given a fresh coat of paint. In 2014, Volcano's queue line was improved. On February 8, 2019, Kings Dominion announced that Volcano would never reopen. The entire volcano structure, which had been built in 1979, was demolished in May 2019.
Ride experience
Volcano's layout simulated the path of a volcanic eruption. Upon boarding one of two trains at the base of the mountain, riders made a slow turn left out of the station. The train then moved into its first of two launch tracks, which accelerated the train to. After making a sweeping 200-degree turn behind the mountain, the train entered the second launch tunnel, followed by a vertical section ending in a "roll out" element. The "roll out", similar to a sidewinder, was a vertical section of track followed by a quarter loop to bring the train completely upside down, then a loose half-corkscrew. According to Roller Coaster DataBase, the roll out element was unique to Volcano. The highest point of the roll out is above ground level, which made it the highest inversion at Kings Dominion, taller than Dominator's vertical loop. After the roll-out, the train made a sweeping turn around the mountain followed by a heartline roll in midair. The train made another turnaround and passed through a second heartline roll, which was embedded into the side of the mountain. After another turnaround and a third heartline roll, the train made a turning drop into the final brake run.
Incidents
On June 23, 2006, the roller coaster experienced a launch failure when a train carrying 15 passengers stalled and rolled back slightly. Some were stranded for more than two hours. One rider reported hearing a loud pop and getting hit in the chin with flying debris.
Records
Volcano: The Blast Coaster once held the record of the highest inversion in the world at. In May 2013, GateKeeper at Cedar Point took the record with an inversion that stands at.
