originally posted on 11/10/2025
All renderings: courtesy Kentucky Kingdom. View full-sized image.
When Herschend Family Entertainment — owners of Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, and Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee — purchased Kentucky Kingdom (Louisville) in 2021, expectations ran higher than the park’s airport-related FAA height requirement for new construction. While the park has yet to install the gigacoaster that enthusiasts have been clamoring for, the 2026 season will see the debut of Flying Fox.
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The $14 million suspended family coaster will be provided by Vekoma and positioned near the park’s Chance Rides GT-X Lightning Run, bringing new life to a small portion of its limited real estate. Themed to celebrate the state’s agricultural heritage, the 1,380-foot-long layout will be highlighted by a 65-foot-tall lift hill and drop into an underground tunnel in the middle of the course. One 20-passenger train consisting of 10 two-seat cars will traverse the layout. With a height requirement of only 38 inches, adults and children can ride together.
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Flying Fox will be the first roller coaster installed at the Louisville theme park since 2019’s Kentucky Flyer — a 47-foot-tall wood coaster courtesy of The Gravity Group. For the 2025 season, a section of the park was reborn as Discovery Meadow, which included the reimagining of its Storm Chaser and Thunder Run coasters into Wind Chaser and Woodland Run, respectively. Flying Fox will bring Kentucky Kingdom’s coaster count to six — more than any other park in the state.
— Rob Ascough, ACE News
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