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This little bitty coaster may not look like much but it is one of the rides that I was most looking forward to riding during our day at Lagoon.



The Jet Star 2 was designed by the legendary coaster designer Anton Schwarzkopf.  The design was his third foray into the world of coaster designs after the Wildcat and Jet Star portable coasters.



A portable coaster like Anton's previous designs, the Jet Star 2 takes his Jet Star design and improves on it with height, length, three seat trains and the spiral lift he would later use in his park model rides like the Zambezi Zinger that ran at Worlds of Fun, The Big Bend that ran at Six Flags Over Texas and both of the Willard's Whizzer coasters (now just The Whizzer) that opened at the two Marriott's Great America Parks (now California's Great America and Six Flags Great America).



As someone who admires engineering and of course coasters it is really cool to get to see the steps that an engineer took to reach their defining work.  For Anton Schwarzkopf it went from the Wildcat to the Jet Star to Jet Star 2 to The Whizzer before creating the worlds first vertical looping coaster The Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain before going on to his masterpieces the Shock Wave at Six Flags Over Texas and Mind Bender at Six Flags Over Georgia.



Lagoon's Jet Star 2 is the first of this model that I have had the chance to ride and having spent some serious time on the Jet Star at Indiana Beach (The Tig'rr) and with as much punch as that little ride packs in I was really excited about this bigger and improved model.  So let's get on with the ride.



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Paul B. Drabek