Skyrush, a Winged Roller Coaster at Hersheypark Jim Simpson for The New York Times Some riders take the track-side seats on the new winged-seat coaster, Skyrush, at Hersheypark in Hershey, Pa. HERSHEY, Pa. - Each season in the theme park world brings a spirit of roller coaster one-upmanship. Which park will build the fastest, tallest, scariest, weirdest or most-talked-about coaster of the summer? Park officials plug away at research, and engineers tinker with formulas to come up with rides they hope will turn heads and raise arms. Three coasters with winged seating have opened in the United States this year. A relatively new development in coaster technology, winged seats are to the side of the track, rather than above it, so riders have nothing above or below them but sky and air. The new coasters are X-Flight, at Six Flags Great America in Illinois; Wild Eagle, at Dollywood in Tennessee; and Skyrush, here at Hersheypark. Hershey's yellow, towering coaster - manufactured by the Swiss company Intamin - offers a twist on the winged-seating concept by putting its two center seats above the track and positioning its outer seats a little lower on either side. In this formation the riders on the outer edges have a more intense experience than those seated in the middle. The coaster opened over Memorial Day weekend, when I joined a long line to "ride the edge," as the park's promotional tagline states. Skyrush also has features rivaling those of the most intense rides in the New York region. The first hill peaks at 200 feet, making for the tallest of Hersheypark's 12 coasters. A speedy cable pulls the train to the top in about 10 seconds. That first drop occurs at an 85 degree angle, and the train surpasses 75 miles per hour. The ride has five airtime hills, in which riders experience a feeling of weightlessness. And there's a Stengel dive, named after the coaster designer Werner Stengel, which features a sharply banked turn that twists before plunging into the rest of the ride. The winged seats significantly change a rider's perspective and make the surrounding environment more a part of the coaster. The experience was different from any I'd had on a coaster before, which was surprising. Another element that distinguishes Skyrush from the other winged coasters is its restraint system. Instead of an over-the-shoulder harness, it has only a lap restraint, allowing for upper-body freedom and an even wilder feeling of flight. At some of the most aggressive points in the ride, the lap restraint felt like the only thing preventing me from flying out of my seat. The upper-body freedom does cost a bit of comfort to the lower body. The system is a flat plate that comes down to rest atop riders" thighs. As the coaster goes through its elements, the restraint tightens, holding you in for dear life and creating a little more thigh pressure than is ideal. The park has received some complaints about that, and its officials say they are paying attention to those concerns. "Because it's a new ride, and we were all learning how to get comfortable with the ride, we went through a little more aggressiveness with the restraints to make sure people were safe," Kent Bachmann, the park's director of engineering, said in a telephone interview. We will be looking into making improvements on that, because this is the first train with that type of restraint. With the addition of Skyrush, Hersheypark, about a three-hour drive from New York City, is solidifying its role as a premier destination for thrills. This is the park's third Intamin-designed coaster in eight years and one that continues to push technology forward. The ride sits in an area called the Hollow, featuring three coasters from different eras in the park's coaster evolution. Its track interacts with that of the Comet, Hersheypark's oldest operating coaster, built in 1946. Skyrush's final stretch runs alongside the hills of Comet for an exciting meld of old and new. Other Ways to Fly High These attractions at parks around the region also do a breathtaking job at sending people soaring: BOARDWALK FLIGHT Luna Park, at Coney Island, Brooklyn; (718) 373-5862, lunaparknyc.com. Riders are strapped in, placed on their stomachs and attached to ropes that raise them 200 feet. A cord is pulled, sending them soaring over the Coney Island Boardwalk and back. SKYSCREAMER Six Flags Great Adventure and Wild Safari, Jackson, N.J.; (732) 928-1821, sixflags.com/greatadventure. The newest ride at this park is a high-flying swing that takes riders 242 feet into the air and spins up to 40 miles per hour. SUPERMAN: ULTIMATE FLIGHT Six Flags Great Adventure and Wild Safari. Riders ascend the lift hill while strapped into seats, facing down, before being plunged into loops and twists that simulate the adventures of the Man of Steel. THUNDER N" LIGHTNING Lake Compounce, Bristol, Conn; (860) 583-3300, lakecompounce.com. This one consists of two giant yellow swings with a single row of seats facing outward on each side. Riders are taken up nearly 100 feet and are sent barreling through the sky at 60 m.p.h.