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Thrill Ride Designer

Engineer Suzy Cheely designs roller coasters and other extreme rides

BUSCH GARDENS WILLIAMSBURG

Suzy Cheely and her team created the indoor ride DarKoaster, which opens this year! This illustration shows how part of it will look.

As you read, think about how engineers use forces and motion to create thrilling rides.

BUSCH GARDENS WILLIAMSBURG

Suzy Cheely

Clink, clink, clink. Your car inches up the first hill of a wild roller coaster. The car begins to tip forward over the top of the hill. Then WHOOSH!

You scream with excitement as you race down the track!

If you love thrills like this, you have engineers like Suzy Cheely to thank. She leads a team that designs rides at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Water Country USA, both in Virginia. She recently spoke with SuperScience about her work.

Clink, clink, clink. Your car inches up the first hill of a wild roller coaster. You reach the top. Your car begins to tip forward. Then WHOOSH!

You scream as you race down the track!

Do you love thrills like this? If so, you have engineers like Suzy Cheely to thank. She works at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Water Country USA, both in Virginia. There she leads a team that designs rides. Cheely recently spoke with SuperScience about her work

What led you to your career?

I love math and drawing. So in college I pursued engineering, which involves both. I really enjoyed it! For 10 years after college, I designed buildings and bridges. Then I heard about a job at a theme park. I thought, “Wow, how fun would that be?” A few months later, I joined Busch Gardens.

I love math and drawing. So in college I studied engineering. It uses both. I really enjoyed it! I designed buildings and bridges for 10 years after college. Then I heard about a job at a theme park. I thought, “Wow, how fun would that be?” I joined Busch Gardens a few months later.

How do you come up with ride ideas?

We think about what’s the next big thing in ride design and see how it could fit at the park. The theme of Busch Gardens Williamsburg is European countries, like France, Germany, and Italy. Each ride has a story that connects to the corresponding country’s culture.

An empty building inspired our newest ride, DarKoaster, which opens this year. The space is shaped like a castle, and we designed a ride to fit inside. The building has no windows, so we used lights and sounds to play off the scenery and tell a story about a cursed castle during a storm. That’s an experience you can’t get from an outdoor ride.

We think about what’s the next big thing in ride design. We see how it could fit at the park. Busch Gardens Williamsburg has a theme. It’s European countries, like France, Germany, and Italy. Each ride has a story that links to a certain country’s culture.

An empty building inspired our newest ride. It’s called DarKoaster. It opens this year. The space is shaped like a castle. We created a ride to fit inside it. The building has no windows. So we used lights and sounds to play off the scenery. It tells a story about a cursed castle during a storm. You can’t get that from an outdoor ride.

What features make a great ride?

We use shapes like loops and drops to make rides exciting. Engineers call these shapes elements. With Pantheon, an outdoor roller coaster that opened in 2022, we used 1,014 meters (3,327 feet) of track. That gave us room to use a lot of creative ride elements!

For example, in the middle of Pantheon, there’s a section of track where devices called electromagnets use magnetic forces to push the car forward, then backward up a vertical piece of track, then forward again (see Design of Pantheon). Finally, the car builds up enough kinetic energy, the energy of motion, to make it over a 55 meter (180 foot)-tall hill.

At the top of that hill, your car is full of potential energy. Then gravity pulls you down the other side. As you speed over the remaining hills, you feel weightless, like you’re coming out of your seat.

We use shapes like loops and drops. It makes rides exciting. Engineers call these shapes elements. Pantheon is an outdoor roller coaster that opened in 2022. We used 1,014 meters (3,328 feet) of track for Pantheon. That gave us room to use a lot of fun ride elements!


There’s a section of track in the middle of Pantheon. It has devices called electromagnets. They use magnetic forces to push the car forward (see Design of Pantheon). Then they pull it backward straight up a piece of track. And then forward again. Finally, the car builds up enough kinetic energy. It’s the energy of motion. This drives it over a 55 meter (180 foot)-tall hill.

Your car is full of potential energy at the top of that hill. Then gravity pulls you down the other side. You speed over the remaining hills. You feel weightless. It’s like you’re coming out of your seat.

How are designing water rides and roller coasters different?

Roller coasters have motors or magnets that pull the cars up the first big hill and sometimes other hills too. Most water rides don’t have motors. Instead, guests gain potential energy by climbing to the top of a tower. There might be little hills along the way, but the energy you have at the top is what gets you to the bottom.

When we build a new slide, we build the tower on top of a hill. Then we build the splash pool in a valley. That way we get as much height difference as possible for the ride.

Roller coasters have motors or magnets. They pull the cars up the first big hill and sometimes other hills too. Most water rides don’t have motors. Instead, guests gain potential energy by climbing to the top of a tower. There might be little hills along the way, but the energy you have at the top is what gets you to the bottom.

We build the tower on top of a hill when we build a new slide. Then we build the splash pool in a valley. That way we get as much height as possible for the ride.

What advice would you give kids who want to design rides?

Think about what you love about the ride experience. You can work for a park or for companies that help build rides for different parks. You can be the person who comes up with the themes and stories for rides. There are so many pieces that go into creating rides, so there’s a lot you can do!

Think about what you love about a ride. You can work for a park. Or you can work for companies that help build rides. You can be the person who comes up with the themes and stories for rides. There are so many pieces that go into creating rides. So there’s a lot you can do!

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