Status Concept Designer Julijonas Urbonas Created 2010 | Model Strata coaster Height 510 m (1,670 ft) | |
 | ||
Euthanasia coaster
The Euthanasia Coaster is an art concept for a steel roller coaster designed to kill its passengers. In 2010, it was designed and made into a scale model by Julijonas Urbonas, a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art in London. Urbonas, who has worked at an amusement park, stated that the goal of his concept roller coaster is to take lives "with elegance and euphoria". As for practical applications of his design, Urbonas mentioned "euthanasia" or "execution". John Allen, who served as president of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, inspired Urbonas with his description of the "ultimate" roller coaster as one that "sends out 24 people and they all come back dead".
Contents
Design
The concept design of the layout begins with a steep-angled lift to the 510-metre (1,670 ft) (0.317 mile) top, which would take two minutes for the 24-passenger train to reach. From there, a 500-metre (1,600 ft) drop would take the train to 360 kilometres per hour (220 mph), close to its terminal velocity, before flattening out and speeding into the first of its seven slightly clothoid inversions. Each inversion would have a smaller diameter than the one before in order to maintain the lethal 10 g to passengers while the train loses speed. After a sharp right-hand turn the train would enter a straight, where unloading of corpses and loading of new passengers could take place.
Pathophysiology
The Euthanasia Coaster would kill its passengers through prolonged cerebral hypoxia, or insufficient supply of oxygen to the brain. The ride's seven inversions would inflict 10 g on its passengers for 60 seconds – causing g-force related symptoms starting with gray out through tunnel vision to black out and eventually g-LOC (g-force induced loss of consciousness). Subsequent inversions would serve as insurance against unintentional survival of particularly robust passengers.
Exhibition
Urbonas's concept drew media attention when shown as part of the HUMAN+ display at the Science Gallery in Dublin from April through June 2011. The display, designated as its 2011 'flagship exhibition' by the Science Gallery, aims to show the future of humans and technology. Within this theme, the Euthanasia Coaster highlights the issues that come with life extension. The item was also displayed at HUMAN+ exhibit at Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona in 2015.
Popular culture
On 14 June 2013, Norwegian rock group Major Parkinson released "Euthanasia Roller Coaster", a digital single with lyrics alluding to Urbonas's Euthanasia Coaster.
Lavie Tidhar's short story Vladimir Chong Chooses to Die incorporates Urbonas's Euthanasia Coaster into the ending.
Glenn Paton’s short film H Positive explores the motivations of a wealthy man who, upon discovering that he is dying, commissions an architect to build a Euthanasia Coaster identical to Urbonas's design. Although Urbonas is not mentioned during the film, the end credits affirm that the film was based on Urbonas's project.