American Eagle is a wooden racing roller coaster located at Six Flags Great America theme park in Gurnee, Illinois.

It was the first wooden roller coaster designed by Intamin of Switzerland and was built in 1981 by the contracting firm Figley-Wright at a cost of $10 million.

[7] Prior to 2006, guests would first walk through a large tent – originally used for a circus in the late 1970s – before reaching the queue.

After boarding is complete, the red and blue trains are dispatched simultaneously, turning 200 degrees in opposite directions from one another as they proceed toward the chain lift hill.

This is followed by two smaller air time hills before traveling upward and leveling out into a set of trim brakes at the far end of the out-and-back layout.

Here, the trains are slowed as they enter a large 560-degree helix where they circle downward over a small marsh, gradually picking up speed along the way.

Both trains then rise into the massive wooden structure of the lift hill, encountering another set of trim brakes to slow them down.

The blue train circles at a significantly smaller radius further making up ground it lost in the earlier helix.

Some of the hallmarks of the coaster's out-and-back design include its 560-degree helix at the turnaround point and a 55-degree first drop that dips 20 feet (6.1 m) below ground level.

An original design feature was a set of holding brakes that would perch trains at the top of the lift hill for a brief moment to give riders a bird's-eye view of the impending, 147-foot (45 m) drop.

[citation needed][8] The ride was also originally designed to run with a total of six trains; however, that number has since been reduced to four (two per track).