The American Eagle

YOU’RE MY BOY, BLUE! #redsidesucks
Even when it’s not running backwards, the blue side of the eagle is still superior. Better return run back to the platform, and having the outside of the huge 540° helix yields more lateral G’s. The station operators make an effort to race the two sides, which is very cool of them. Eagle is – and always has been – one of my favorites at Great America, delivering amazing ride after ride on an annual basis.
It’s the summer of 2015, and the red side is offering double rides. 2x the rides means 2x the wait. Avoid this silly gimmick folks, it’s not worth it. Stick with the shorter wait and single ride. But make sure you include American Eagle on your trip to SFGAm, just be prepared for a rickety out-​and-​back adventure.
«» Roller coaster storytime funsies! ««
On 8÷22÷15, I got stuck at the top of the red side’s lift hill for about 10 minutes. No biggie, I’ve been on enough coasters where this has occasion to happen (in fact, I was on one in New Jersey that dropped back a notch on the lift hill and being in the back row, I nearly pissed myself). A charming station worker by the name of Patty walked aalllll the way up to the top to console the rest of the riders who were practically in hysterics. Not me of course, I was cool as a cucumber, cracking jokes to boost train morale («somebody get out and push», «at least the view up here is nice», and so forth). I even snapped some decent photos while stranded up there. Eventually we got going again and our train got a huge round of applause back in the station. I gleefully requested ‘triple rides’ for the inconvenience, but to no avail.
The upstops (wheels underneath the car) are the only thing keeping the trains affixed to the track as it crests the short hill immediately preceding the helix. If you listen closely, you can actually *hear* the sound of the train crashing back down on the running wheels (main ones on top). Yeah really. And the way the trains pick up speed in that massive helix is a beautiful thing, I never get tired of those lovely laterals.
American Eagle: a true blue classic. Here’s to hoping you never change.

There have been new rides at Six Flags lately, but the American Eagle is a classic coaster.
The American Eagle was once the tallest and fastest wooden coaster. It’s a wooden racing coaster. That record is not there anymore. At 63mph and 163 feet, it’s still very thrilling! The airtime on this wooden beast is really good! In the 80’s, you would’ve waited 3 HOURS for the Eagle.
My only problem is that it’s a bit rough. This is especially after the first drop.
All in all, very fun coaster. If your going for less of a line, go for the red side! I think it’s a tie if it goes the same time. Choose your team– Red or Blue?

Great, fun coaster — it was a record breaker when it opened and it still runs well 33 years later. I wish they’ed run Blue side backwards all the time, it adds a lot of fun to it, even having rode this literally hundreds of times.

New rides come and go, but this classic is a must at the park. I recall being about 15 and finally getting enough courage to ride it back in the 80’s.
My daughter took her first ride when she was about 7 and my son when he was 8. This past weekend, when lines were short, we didn’t have to wait at all to get on the ride and it always brings back good memories.

Great wooden coaster. Great use of wooden racing coaster elements. Great drops, great negative G’s (Im personally not a fan of negative G’s but they are a classic wooden coaster element and I can appreciate them), I love the winding downhill curve, and the hills twisting over each other are a very fun use of the racing coaster type. When they run it backwards its even better.

PICK A COLOR
Are you blue or red? As you are standing in line, that is a choice you will have to make. Yes this is a dual track coaster with the red train and blue train racing each other. I must admit that my side always wins so follow me. Ha! Actually the trains were designed to finish in a tie but there a few factors that play in this finish. One of the first things is weight. The more weight in the train, especially in the front, will cause the train to release sooner and go faster down the first drop. So all of the larger riders in the front if you want to win.
The American Eagle first opened on May 23, 1981 and held several coaster world records. Currently it still holds 4 World Records: fastest racing wooden roller coaster, longest racing wooden roller coaster, tallest racing wooden roller coaster & largest drop on a racing wooden roller coaster. It is not often you get to experience something that is record setting.
Over the years The American Eagle has lost a few World Records too. For 19 years American Eagle was known as the Fastest wooden roller coaster. In fact, for 7 years it was the fastest roller coaster until 1988. It was also the tallest wooden roller coaster until 1985. And had the largest drop on a wooden roller coaster until 1989. I’m proud to say I rode on this coaster while it had all 8 world records. So that is cool.
This is a long ride, in fact the coaster takes up almost one side of the park. It is really impressive to see this coaster from the Interstate. If the site of the American Eagle doesn’t make you want to pull of the road and ride it, then you just aren’t a coaster person. The ride lasts approximately 2 minutes and 23 seconds which is worth the wait in line. I know I’ve waited a while to ride on this a few hundred times in my life. The track is 4,650 feet in length with a top speed of 65 mph. Also be warned that this is a wooden roller coaster, so there will be shaking going on. The American Eagle is not the smoothest ride, so be prepared for the rattle. Listening to the kids talk really cracks me up. They expect every roller coaster to be smooth. I wanna break into my old guy speech…“when I was your age we were lucky to have a lap bar to hold us in…” In fact, this ride use to only have one lap bar shared between two riders. Currently there is a personal lap bar per rider and an individual seat belt. See they didn’t care if I flew out of my seat in 1981 because it was all part of the thrill. What do you think about that kids?
The American Eagle reaches a height of 127 feet with a drop of 147 feet. This is the same for ether side of the track. There is a great view of the park from up here. My favorite time to ride is right at sunset, so I can enjoy the whole park.
If you happen to be reading this review in line, then I’ve got some fun facts for you during your wait. The American Eagle has 129,720 bolts, and 30,600 pounds of nails. And if your really bored you can start counting them. It also would take 9,000 gallons of white paint to cover the 1,360,000 feet of lumber, Yes that’s a lot of wood to paint. Currently the American Eagle could use some of that paint because it is looking a little dated.
The entrance to American Eagle use to be under the big top tent which is currently the Kids area (formerly Wiggles Land). This area was always packed with switch back after switch back of people waiting to ride the American Eagle. The current entrance is located to the right of the Kids area. A little bonus feature: look over the railing and you will see some of the old track along with several cars left from the old racetrack attraction. When X-​Flight was built the racetrack was taken away. I’ll never forget you race cars.
So are you Red or Blue? It really doesn’t matter because the American Eagle is going to thrill you. The first big drop is amazing and you will love the view as you are free falling down to Earth. It’s also fun to yell at the train next to you too. Everyone gets into the competitive nature of the race. In the end it doesn’t matter who finishes first, all that matters is you had an amazing time riding the American Eagle.