>John Allen, who served as president of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, inspired Urbonas with his description of the "ultimate" roller coaster as one that "sends out 24 people and they all come back dead".
The video is definitely worth checking out as well, to get a sense of what it would look like in real life. The video alternates between first person point of view from one of the passenger seats and third person point of view looking at the coaster from the outside, as well as some panning shots.
The video is accompanied by Oxygène by Jean Michel Jarre. And I think it's a suitable song for such a ride. Listening to that music while watching the video, they feel like they go together nicely.
Is there really any challenge in making a roller coaster that kills its riders? Seems like the space of lethal coasters would be larger than for non-lethal ones.
Also, is the short amount of time with hypoxia really enough to kill someone? Or is it just an unconsciousness coaster?
That time with normal hypoxia wouldn't be a problem, but a sustained 10 G without any training means losing all blood flow to the brain. I'm not a doctor but I can imagine 60 seconds of no blood flow damages the brain enough to make you not come back from unconsciousness.
Well I know where I'm not buying a toboggan from.