The prop in front allows for obstacle removal. The deer just breaks up in front of you and the refreshing gore covers you. They killed Kenny! You bastards!
Brakes? How do you stop this thing? I suppose you could just drift around the ice untill it ran out of gas, but then you could be miles away from where you launched the thing at that point.
Oh, for the good old days before personal injury lawyers! 
If one of you will build this thing, I volunteer to pilot it. After all, it’s all in the name of science.
I think “you’ll get thrown into the propeller” should be the SBMD’s new “you’ll shoot your eye out”…
That article looks like something the Usual Gang of Idiots would write.
“All you need is a high speed motorcycle engine, an air propeller and the mechanical ability to assemble the chassis and put the outfit in tune…” It doesn’t hurt to be named Wile E. Coyote, either.
A Mortician would be more like it.
A motorcycle engine that you would buy today would have at least 70 horsepower and turn about 14,000 rpm’s. 
SSSHHHHHHWWWWWIIIIINNNNGGGGGGG
I like the nearly vertical steel strut mere inches in front of the pilot’s nutsack, too.
Flip the propeller around, add a wire safety cage and I don’t see what what the problem would be. Basically, you’d be making the winter sport version of the swamp going airboat. I mean, airboats don’t have breaks either but they manage to stop. Is the friction that much less for wooden runners on ice than it is for a flat aluminum boat on water? Yeah, add seat belts, a boat body (or some kind of float/pontoon system in case of ice breaks), and rear facing propeller and I’d ride on it. :>
Nope, it was tested on the streets of Germany in the 1930s, IIRC.
There is just such a thing in the Boy Mechanic volume given me by Tuckerfan and Zenster. It also includes changes that make the whole thing more comfortable.
The idea of a prop-driven ice car-thingy isn’t that bad assuming you take the reasonable measures suggested above, like putting the propeller behind the passengers so that they don’t get thrown into the blades or have to sit in the prop wash. But what’s with the sissy 1-inch wide runners? Put a few dozen ice skate blades on the bottom of those runners, and then we’ll see about some speed.
Snowplanes were fairly popular in the 30’s and 40’s. They were made somewhat obsolete by the snowmobile although there are still a few around.
http://www.yourdurango.com/bwphoto4.html
I think you need to change your username to “Icerazor.” Or perhaps “Icerazor Bwa ha ha haa.”
Such beasts are used for private and public transport on Lake Superior, particularly in the periods when the ice prevents regular boating, but the ice is not yet thick enough for car and truck travel.
There are some good pics of a wind sleds at http://www.windsled.com/
[ul]One in regular commercial operation: http://www.windsled.com/miw.htm
[/ul]
[ul]One being built: WindSled.com is for sale | HugeDomains
[/ul]
[ul]One that looks somewhat like a swap air boat: WindSled.com is for sale | HugeDomains
[/ul]
[ul]A trailerable one: WindSled.com is for sale | HugeDomains
[/ul]
Note that these are essentially displacement hulls with air-propellors attached at the back, similar to swamp going air boats. They are not on skates.
There is a significant difference between moving a displacement hull through water, and moving a non-displacement hull on hydrofoils through water, and there is a huge difference between moving anything through water and moving it on ice on skates. Think about my earlier reference to an ice boat (meaning a light contraption on skates powered by sail) sailing along on skates on ice at about 143mph – that’s roughly 90mph faster than the fastest non-displacement hull hydrofoil sailboats and windsurfers can go, and those non-displacement hull hydrofoil sailboats and windsurfers scream past displacement hull sailboats as if they were standing still.
Here is a pic of the iceboat that made 143mph in 1938:
and a similar model with the sail up:
Here is a pic of the iceboat that is hoping to break 200mph:
http://www.miswislandiceyacht.com/
Here’s a pic of the fastet iceboat on wheels, which only made 116.7 mph on land: windjet.co.uk is for sale!
That’s a lot slower than on ice.
I would love to get into iceboating. As it is, I telemark on hardpacked snow covered lakes behind a couple of large traction kites. Holy Shit Batman, it’s a blast!
Heh, and when it comes to stopping on ice, forget it.
Unless you break through into the water at 76mph: http://computercorner.cc/miswis/images/4.event_1.jpg
That’s the dude who is trying for 200mph.
LOL
I’ve lived my whole life in the south and my speculation was just that, I had no idea such a thing really existed IRL. Large bodies of frozen water are just foreign to me. The first time I saw one was when I visited my in laws in upstate NY one winter… were were going over a bridge and I saw a bunch of buckled ice and snow underneath. I thought it was odd they built a bridge to go over such a relatively shallow valley and asked why anybody would plow up all that ice and snow like that. I just couldn’t really put it all together driving along as we were and spoke without really thinking about it. I was then informed that I was looking at the Mohawk river… covered in ice flows that were breaking up. :eek: TOOO fucking cold for me.
It’s all fun and games, until someone gets thrown into the propeller!
If you get thrown into the propeller, don’t come running to me!