OTTAWA An Ottawa-area inventor’s latest gadget is bringing a popular winter pastime to the next level. Brydon Gibson, a 24-year-old engineer with a passion for tinkering with spare parts, developed a self-described jetpack that can help people reach speeds of up 30 kilometres per hour while ice skating. “I’ve been calling it a jetpack, I know it’s not a jetpack, but it’s the easiest thing to call it other than ‘propeller weed whacker thing,’ Gibson told CTV News. The “propeller weed whacker thing” is basically a wooden frame that attaches to the skater’s back, with a small motor inside that Gibson found online and an airplane propeller.
Brydon Gibson used a wooden propeller and the motor from a weed trimmer
He fashioned a throttle using the brake handle and cable from a 10-speed bike
The gas-powered contraption has no brakes, just a finicky kill switch
It requires a second person to start the propeller, like they did on the old planes
Gibson, 24, has also built a homemade hovercraft and other inventions
Brydon Gibson is turning heads on frozen stretches of the Ottawa River with a homemade device he jokingly refers to as his "jetpack." In reality, the gas-powered, propeller-driven gizmo is more Rona than NASA.