In the summer of 1986, visitors to Blackpool witnessed one of the most spectacular publicity stunts ever staged on the Promenade when American jet-pack pilot and stunt performer Kinnie Gibson blasted into the sky in front of Blackpool Tower. Gibson flew a rocket belt from the Promenade to a specially constructed landing platform approximately 85 feet above ground level on the roof of the Tower complex. The flight was organised to promote the launch of a Lancashire wall-covering company into the American market, bringing together cutting-edge technology, daring aviation and Blackpool’s long tradition of headline-grabbing entertainment. The spectacle attracted large crowds along the seafront, while entertainers Linda Nolan and Lord Bernard Delfont, then head of First Leisure, which owned Blackpool Tower, watched the demonstration during one of his visits to the resort.
Although the flight itself lasted only around sixty seconds, months of planning lay behind those few moments. Rocket belts carried only enough fuel for about a minute of powered flight, meaning there was little margin for error. Once the fuel was exhausted, the machine effectively became dead weight, making precise take-offs and landings essential.
This was Kinnie Gibson immediately after landing from his flight up from the promenade, the tripod is to support the weight of the jet pack as it was very heavy. We had to run across the road and up in the lift to roof as soon as he had it on his back to enable him to take it off once landed.
Photographer David Hulme, who documented the event from the Tower roof, recalled what happened immediately after Gibson touched down. As soon as the rocket man landed, Hulme and a colleague rushed across the road and up through the Tower to reach the landing platform before helping remove the heavy jet pack. The equipment was so weighty that it required a specially constructed tripod stand simply to support it once it had been taken off.
Jet-pack flights were still an extraordinary rarity during the mid-1980s. Originally developed from Bell Aerosystems’ pioneering rocket belt experiments of the early 1960s, the technology remained expensive, technically demanding and limited by extremely short flight times. Public demonstrations were therefore uncommon and invariably attracted considerable media attention wherever they appeared.
Blackpool has always embraced spectacular publicity events, from high-wire acts and escapology to aviation displays and world-record attempts. Kinnie Gibson’s ascent to the Tower added another memorable chapter to that tradition, transforming the famous seafront into the stage for one of Britain’s most unusual aerial demonstrations and reminding visitors why Blackpool has long been regarded as the country’s home of entertainment.
David Hulme and a friend pictured next to the jet pack after the flight. The jet pack needed the stand to hold it. The maximum flight time was only around sixty seconds as with no power for the jet engine, it was as aerodynamic as a house brick!
Text source: ChatGPT and David Hulme
Images by © David Hulme
