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What They Do

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Hundreds of people want to be part of the climbing, dropping and twisting world of roller-coasters. But the fact is only an elite few can become roller-coaster designers -- the people who invent new roller-coaster rides and see those ideas through construction.

Modern coasters can take two to three years to design and can cost millions to build. Recent designs have topped the $8-million mark. Over the years, the design process has incorporated high-tech computer imagery.

Ron Toomer is a consultant director at a U.S. roller-coaster design company. "Most people think they just get to draw the up and down," he says.

"A big part of designing roller-coasters is taking that and putting it into drawings we can work from and figure out forces on people and that kind of thing."

For that reason, most designers are mechanical engineers, electrical engineers or structural engineers. A few are designer drafters. Toomer says the top drafters have many of the same skills as an engineer.

"Top-level [drafters] have a good ability to do mathematical analysis to measure stress and things like that," he explains.

Mechanical engineers design the loops and drops that roller-coasters are famous for. They can also design everything from the coaches to the nuts and bolts of a new ride.

Structural engineers oversee the structural aspects of design. Just how do you support a 225-foot structure with coaches moving at speeds of over 80 miles an hour?

But there is more to roller-coaster design than the dreamy ups and downs that thrill riders. There is also the element of safety.

Double "E" engineers -- electrical and electronic -- design computer programs that ensure trains don't leave too close together and that the speed they move at is properly controlled.

"[We] spend more than half the time working on the safety issue. That's really the whole thing for us," says engineer Glenn Birket. "It's not the part that you think of first. It's maybe the part that you think of after you've thought a little harder about roller-coasters."

One designer may have an idea for a new roller-coaster, but it's often up to a team of people to work out how to safely make that idea a reality.

Designers work for roller-coaster manufacturers and suppliers -- suppliers are the people who design or build coaches and railings for use by the roller-coaster companies.

A roller-coaster designer works similar hours to other engineers -- usually 9 to 5 -- but design engineers can put in long hours when deadlines loom. "We just gave our lives over to the project," says wooden roller-coaster designer Mike Boodley.

At a Glance

Enter a field with big ups and downs

  • You'll design the layout and performance of the world's coasters
  • There are fewer than three dozen roller-coaster design companies
  • To land a job in this field, you should consider a mechanical engineering degree

Contact

  • Email Support
  • 1-800-GO-TO-XAP (1-800-468-6927)
    From outside the U.S., please call +1 (424) 750-3900
  • North Dakota Career Resource Network
    ndcrn@nd.gov | (701) 328-9733

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