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Air (abbreviation of Aerial Inversion Ride; originally stylised as air) is a steel flying roller coaster located in the Forbidden Valley area of Alton Towers in Staffordshire, England. It was the first flying rollercoaster manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard, and as a result labeled as the first successful flying rollercoaster. Guests ride in a prone position and experience the feeling of flight by "flying" close to the ground, under footpaths, and narrowly past trees and rocks. The ride reaches a top speed of . Air was the third 'Secret Weapon' ride to have opened. ==History== The concept of a flying roller coaster was first conceived in 1994 and was meant to debut at Alton Towers in 1998 but due to technological limitations at the time, its realisation was delayed. Flying roller coasters are characterised by passengers riding parallel with the track. Shortly afterward, Bolliger & Mabillard began designing their own flying roller coaster. Alton Towers began construction of Bolliger & Mabillard' prototype flying coaster in mid-2001. Later that year, Alton Towers officially announced the ride as being an unnamed "Aerial Inversion Ride" which would open in March 2002. Alton Towers later revealed that the ride's name would actually be "AIR", the abbreviation of "Aerial Inversion Ride"; it was subsequently altered to lowercase.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.altontowers.com/rides-and-attractions/thrill-rides/air-rollercoaster/ )〕 In early 2002, testing of Air began with special crash test dummies. Costing £12 million to complete, Air was, at the time of its opening, tied with Oblivion as the most expensive ride at Alton Towers.〔 Air officially opened to the public on 16 March 2002. In April 2015, the park announced that the Air Shop is to be extended and a FoodLoop restaurant to be added in the building in 2016. In July 2015, Alton Towers submitted planning permission to make improvements to the ride. These include the addition of a new photo kiosk, the addition of a photo opportunity into the queue, pre-show areas, walls around the station building and 2 new theming elements. These will debut in 2016, along with the restaurant. In October 2015, Alton Towers said to "prepare for a new flight" and to "watch this space", in a statement made on their website. In early November 2015, the Air Shop closed and on-ride photos stopped being sold, in preparation of the new changes. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Air (roller coaster)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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