5. Falcon's Fury (Busch Gardens Tampa, Florida)

Falcon's Fury, the new drop tower at Busch Gardens Tampa, is currently the tallest freestanding drop tower in North America, standing at 335-feet-tall and sending riders plummeting towards the ground at 60 miles per hour. The ride's chief gimmick, though, will be that it twists guests by 90 degrees so that they are facing directly downwards before they freefall down to the bottom.

4. Goliath (Six Flags Great America, Illinois)

Six Flags Great America claimed three world records when Goliath was introduced in 2014. The 180-foot, 85-degree first drop will be the longest and steepest on a wooden roller coaster. As it plummets downwards, the train hits a top speed of up to 72 miles per hour, making this monstrous creation the fastest wooden coaster, too. Look out for three inversions in its circuit, including a 180-degree zero-g roll, an inverted drop and a zero-g stall.

3. Top Thrill Dragster (Cedar Point, Ohio)

Top Thrill Dragster smashed the records for the tallest and fastest roller coasters in the world when it opened in 2003. It has since lost both of these records, but it remains an acrophobia-sufferer's worst nightmare. The coaster uses an innovative new launch system from Intamin, which had been pioneered on the smaller Xcelerator at Knott's Berry Farm a year earlier. It blasts riders up to a top speed of 120 miles per hour, sending them over a 420-foot "top hat" element. After plummeting back towards the ground below, you'll be relieved to find that ride is over - there's not much more to Top Thrill Dragster than the initial launch, but that's more than enough.

2. Kingda Ka (Six Flags Great Adventure, New Jersey)

Towering an incredible 456 feet above Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey is Kingda Ka, a ride which put the park on the map when it opened in 2005. As well as being the world’s tallest roller coaster, it’s among the fastest, too – you’ll be blasted to a top speed of 128 miles per hour in just 3.5 seconds. Kingda Ka features a relatively simple circuit – you’ll race to the top of the gargantuan tower, before plummeting back down towards the ground and back into the station below. It may be over quickly, but this is not an experience you’ll forget in a hurry.

1. Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom (Six Flags Great Adventure, New Jersey)

Six Flags installed the world's tallest drop tower at its Magic Mountain park in California in 2012, with Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom reaching a height of 400 feet. In 2014, the firm to repeated the trick at Six Flags Great Adventure. The park is home to the previous ride on this list, Kingda Ka. So, naturally, Six Flags bolted a drop tower on to that as well. The resulting attraction, Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom, lifts riders some 415 feet in the air, before sending them plummeting back towards the ground below at 90 miles per hour.