Six Flags Qiddiya Begins Design of World’s Fastest Roller Coaster

Covering 32 hectares (79 acres) and featuring 28 rides and attractions across six themed lands, Six Flags Qiddiya is set to become the theme park that breaks all records of entertainment in Saudi Arabia and the region. - SPA

Asharq Al Awsat

12:51-3 January 2021 AD ـ 20 Jumada Al-Ula 1442 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

12:51-3 January 2021 AD ـ 20 Jumada Al-Ula 1442 AH

Six Flags Qiddiya Begins Design of World’s Fastest Roller Coaster

Qiddiya Investment Company (QIC), in partnership with Intamin Amusement Rides, has kicked off the design process for the Falcon’s Flight, the signature attraction of Six Flags Qiddiya — a one-of-a-kind theme park scheduled for opening in Qiddiya’s first phase.

The Falcon’s Flight is set to become the world’s longest, fastest and tallest coaster. It will travel across approximately 4km, feature a vertical cliff dive maneuver into a 160m-deep valley using magnetic motor acceleration (LSM technology), and achieve unprecedented speeds of 250+ km/h.

The Falcon’s Flight will also be the world’s tallest free-standing coaster structure featuring a parabolic airtime hill allowing a weightlessness airtime experience, Saudi state news agency reported.

Commenting on the event, Qiddiya’s Chief Executive Officer Philippe Gas said that rollercoaster fans "around the world have been eagerly anticipating this ride since it was announced as there is nothing quite like it anywhere else. Now we are in the design stage with the experts at Intamin and the engineering team at Six Flags, the excitement is building!

“Falcon’s flight will dominate the skyline at Qiddiya weave all the way around our destination, right out of the theme park, up the cliffside, and down the cliff face — the greatest drop of any ride in the world; it won’t be for the fainthearted!”

On each ride — a three-minute long adventure — up to 20 passengers will experience the exhilaration of three electromagnetic propulsion launch systems as well as panoramic views of Six Flags Qiddiya and the Resort Core.

For his part, Daniel Schoppen, vice president design & development, Intamin Amusement Rides, said: “I will never forget the moment when I was standing at the edge of the 200-meter-high cliff on the Tuwaiq Mountain in Qiddiya, looking into the valley and imagining the creation of a future record-setting roller coaster."

“I knew that exactly at this spot, The Falcon Flight will dive down along the cliff, ending in a unique exhilarating 250+ km/h proximity flight close to the ground. The worldwide unique setting and heights such as the natural cliff will enable us to design an architectural masterpiece in steel,” he added.

Killer Whales Spotted Grooming Each Other with Seaweed

This handout frame grab taken from video footage provided by whale rescue group Organization for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA) on June 9, 2025 shows a distressed humpback whale tangled in a rope swimming south of Sydney Harbour. (Photo by Handout and Clay Sweetman / ORRCA / AFP)

Asharq Al Awsat

17:28-23 June 2025 AD ـ 27 Thul-Hijjah 1446 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

17:28-23 June 2025 AD ـ 27 Thul-Hijjah 1446 AH

Killer Whales Spotted Grooming Each Other with Seaweed

Killer whales have been caught on video breaking off pieces of seaweed to rub and groom each other, scientists announced Monday, in what they said is the first evidence of marine mammals making their own tools.

Humans are far from being the only member of the animal kingdom that has mastered using tools. Chimpanzees fashion sticks to fish for termites, crows create hooked twigs to catch grubs and elephants swat flies with branches.

Tool-use in the world's difficult-to-study oceans is rarer, however sea otters are known to smash open shellfish with rocks, while octopuses can make mobile homes out of coconut shells.

A study published in the journal Current Biology describes a new example of tool use by a critically endangered population of orcas., AFP reported.

Scientists have been monitoring the southern resident killer whales in the Salish Sea, between Canada's British Columbia and the US state of Washington, for more than 50 years.

Rachel John, a Masters student at Exeter University in the UK, told a press conference that she first noticed "something kind of weird" going on while watching drone camera footage last year.

The researchers went back over old footage and were surprised to find this behavior is quite common, documenting 30 examples over eight days.

One whale would use its teeth to break off a piece of bull kelp, which is strong but flexible like a garden hose.

It would then put the kelp between its body and the body of another whale, and they would rub it between them for several minutes.

The pair forms an "S" shape to keep the seaweed positioned between their bodies as they roll around.

Whales are already known to frolic through seaweed in a practice called "kelping".

They are thought to do this partly for fun, partly to use the seaweed to scrub their bodies to remove dead skin.

The international team of researchers called the new behavior "allokelping," which means kelping with another whale.

They found that killer whales with more dead skin were more likely to engage in the activity, cautioning that it was a small sample size.

Whales also tended to pair up with family members or others of a similar age, suggesting the activity has a social element.

The scientists said it was the first known example of a marine mammal manufacturing a tool.

Janet Mann, a biologist at Georgetown University not involved in the study, praised the research but said it "went a bit too far" in some of its claims.

Bottlenose dolphins that use marine sponges to trawl for prey could also be considered to be manufacturing tools, she told AFP.

And it could be argued that other whales known to use nets of bubbles or plumes of mud to hunt represent tool-use benefitting multiple individuals, another first claimed in the paper, Mann said.

Michael Weiss, research director at the Center for Whale Research and the study's lead author, said it appeared to be just the latest example of socially learned behavior among animals that could be considered "culture".

But the number of southern resident killer whales has dwindled to just 73, meaning we could soon lose this unique cultural tradition, he warned.

"If they disappear, we're never getting any of that back," he said.

The whales mainly eat Chinook salmon, whose numbers have plummeted due to overfishing, climate change, habitat destruction and other forms of human interference.

The orcas and salmon are not alone -- undersea kelp forests have also been devastated as ocean temperatures rise.

Unless something changes, the outlook for southern resident killer whales is "very bleak," Weiss warned.

Six Flags Qiddiya Begins Design of World’s Fastest Roller Coaster

Six Flags Qiddiya Begins Design of World’s Fastest Roller Coaster

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Killer Whales Spotted Grooming Each Other with Seaweed

Killer Whales Spotted Grooming Each Other with Seaweed

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