Orange you glad we take lots of photos?

Because, you know, just about everybody is wanting to see the latest construction pics of Thunderbird.

I half expected that a coaster enthusiast (you know who you are!) might have strapped a video cam on Dasher there and sent him in for a DashCam exclusive.

Yes, Thunderbird’s track is heading skyward!

We had some fun recently with this trompe l’oeil on Twitter:

Sort of looks like our Straw Bale Lady has a cowlick … #OrangeIsTheNewTrack pic.twitter.com/FrchesJBF8

— Holiday World (@HolidayWorld) September 26, 2014

And today we posted a brief construction video on our Facebook page:

But right now it’s time for a history lesson.

It’s about the launch into Thunderbird’s first loop.

The Immelmann loop.

Here’s the start:

When I was first included in those top-secret meetings (aka the Cone of Silence) late last year, those in the know kept listing the elements of BT-15.

Including the Entenmann’s loop.

What?

Remember, I grew up on the East Coast – and to me, Entenmann’s means crumbly, cinnamonny coffee cake.

You know:

Wow. Now we’re talking!

After about the third meeting I similarly interrupted, a quick lesson in military history got me straightened out.

It’s Immelmann, not Entenmann’s.

Thunderbird’s first loop is named for Max Immelmann, a German pilot. A World War 1 flying ace, actually. He is said to have invented this half-loop, half-roll maneuver.

And that is why this first inversion is called an Immelmann. It’s a half-loop, half-roll. No coffee cake involved (although I’d venture to say he enjoyed a good piece of apple strudel more than once).

From Thunderbird’s launch, we’ll fly into our Immelmann.

The top of the Immelmann is 14 stories up.

From there, the track rolls over toward The Voyage.

The photo below shows where the end piece of the Immelmann loop will connect.

Topping a roller coaster is a really big deal.

So what will we do when we get there (sometime next week, we think)? Have a celebration of course!

To start the celebration, we’ve moved the SplashCam and renamed it the ThunderbirdCam. It’s located along the Snowy White Gravel Road and is interactive.

That’s right. Interactive.

Views you can choose. (Surely I’m not the first to come up with that phrase.) Have fun playing with this new toy.

Lauren R. took this view because to her it looked like the track pieces were forming one of our HoliSmiles.

We’ve got room for one last Thunderbird photo in this post, with promises of many more to come.

Thunderbird’s track count is 17 out of 77 as of today.

Ain’t it beautiful?