X-Flight

X-Flight is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois. Designed and built by Bolliger & Mabillard, the ride opened as the fourth Wing Coaster in the world and the second in the United States on May 16, 2012. It replaced both the Splashwater Falls and Great American Raceway attractions. The roller coaster features barrel rolls, high-speed drops, and a signature fly-through element, where the train narrowly misses a custom-built air traffic control tower structure as it passes through an opening known as a keyhole element.

==History== X-Flight was announced on September 1, 2011. Six Flags Great America was the first park to announce plans for a Wing Coaster in the United States. Land clearing started that same month on the former site of Splashwater Falls and the Great America Raceway. The first pieces of the track began to arrive in early October. 127 Caissons (footers), ranging from to were dug into the ground. On January 27, 2012, the final piece of the lift hill was topped off. The trains for X-Flight arrived at the park on March 2, 2012. In a Chicago Sun-Times article in February, the park said they expect safety tests to start in early April. A soft opening media preview event was held on May 10, 2012. X-Flight opened for "Xclusive season pass holders" on the weekend of May 12 and then to the public on May 16, 2012. X-Flight originally opened with a 54" height restriction. In 2024, this was changed from 54" to 52".