The roller coaster is named after the defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team from the 1970s, which was nicknamed the Steel Curtain. Previously known as Project 412, the ride was revealed on July 19, 2018, to be a record-breaking looping roller coaster and opened on July 13, 2019. The roller coaster, designed by S&S - Sansei Technologies, features nine inversions, including the highest inversion in the world – a corkscrew at, and reaches a maximum height of. In addition, the ride reaches a maximum speed of and lasts two minutes. In the annual Golden Ticket Awards publication from Amusement Today, Steel Curtain placed first in the category "Best New Roller Coaster of 2019".
Characteristics
Steel Curtain holds a number of records, including being the tallest roller coaster in Pennsylvania, having the most inversions of any coaster in North America, being the world's tallest inverting roller coaster, and having the world's tallest inversion. The ride is also the first amusement attraction themed after a professional football team, and opened alongside a 3-acre football themed area named Steelers Country which will also feature “Terrible Tower”, a climbing attraction, as well as “End Zone Cafe.” It is also one of three coasters to feature a banana roll element, the other two being Takabisha at Fuji-Q Highland and TMNT Shellraiser at American Dream Meadowlands' Nickelodeon Universe.
Ride experience
The ride begins with the train climbing a lift hill immediately as it exits the station. After cresting the hill, it dips slightly and veers left into the world's tallest inversion, an inverting dive drop element off the ground. The train drops out of the inversion. It then banks sharply left, reaching a point close to the ground and traveling back toward the station. It veers left again and enters a banana roll, an element named after its characteristic shape, that inverts riders twice and raises the train to its second-highest point off the ground. Riders descend low to the ground once more into a small airtime hill heading back toward the first drop, entering a sea serpent element with two more inversions. This is followed by an airtime hill and the coaster's sixth inversion, a dive loop that turns the train 180 degrees and sends it back toward the station. After a brief straightaway, riders experience a weightlessness maneuver in a zero-g stall inversion, sometimes referred to as a top gun stall. The coaster's finale follows, with the train entering a corkscrew and cutback in short succession, completing the eighth and ninth inversions respectively. The cutback ends with a slight jump up onto the final brake run, where the train will make its way back into the station.
