Slashdot Mirror
Build Your Own Flying Lawn Mower
Ant writes "Ever seen a flying lawn mower (streaming; download 5.1 MB WMV file) before? I haven't. The WMV video file description says: 'FlyingThingZ Sky Cutter .40 V2 flying at Moon Lake's Annual Make a Wish Foundation Airshow for 2004'. More information can be found on the official Web site. Seen on Blue's News. My good friend, KaT, brought up a good question: 'Since lawns (also known as grass) live usually less than 6" from the ground, how would flying help them do their job better?'"
in case of slashdotting on that site and to reduce slashdotting on my site (I get 25 GB per month... i'll use about 20 this month)... tack on the filename in the 5.1 MB file link to "http://www.calcgames.org/site/pub/" and it'll be there. Please, if you have bandwidth, mirror it to your site, and PLEASE do NOT post a linky to my site.
... to not just mow the grass, but to give my neighbor a haircut!
What's that in the sky?
Is it a bird?
Is it a plane?
It looks....it looks like a lawn mower!
FUCK!!! IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR US!!! DUCK!!!
*Mower "Mows" through field of humans*
It's just a model airplane, not a real lawnmower.
My niece was killed by a flying lawnmower when she was 4. The thing leapt off the ground after hitting a stump and the rotation of the blades created enough lift to set it into flight. You'd have expected the automatic cutoff to kill the motor, but my brother in law held on to the thing and it just took off. She was playing on the second floor balcony when my BIL and the mower caught her upside the temple. Took her scalp clean off.
She's better now, but those first few hours were pretty harrowing.
The video file is likely to slashdot the server, so I've created a mirror at http://emvis.net/skycutter40-1.wmv. Enjoy.
--sean
"[T]he single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom." -- Barry Goldwater
Not quite the promised flying cars of the year 2000, but close enough for me. Now my life is complete. I can ride it right?
Yeah, but can it mulch?
Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
Made the part of my brain that knows things about fluid mechanics shut down and the other part go get a drink. I'm beyond baffled as to why the thing not only flies, but apparently handles pretty well.
Only in a Slashdot fantasy can a Slackware install turn into several hours of sex . . . . .
When I was a kid I saw a commercial hovering mower called the "flymo" or something like that. It did have the advantage of being easier to maneuver around corners. For some reason it never caught on though.
I imagine it burned more gas than a regular mower, since it had to hover as well as cut. I suspect the real reason it didn't catch on was the difficulty of getting an even cut when you throttled the thing back to stop. It couldn't bag either. The problem of the thing riding down as it accumulated clippings was probablly the reason.
There just doesn't seem to be enough merit to the idea.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Just a small model of a lawn mower made out of balsa and foam with an engine tacked on.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Yeah, right, put a link to a 4.9MB file on the front page of slashdot. Gooood idea.
Like shooting fish in a barrel.
--Bennett Prescott
Former Lord Of Packets
This has to be the coolest thing I have ever seen. Seriously. How is it even possible? Isn't it dangerous? In any case, I'm lucky that saw the movie before it is slashdotted, because I have surely never seen anything like that before.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
There would be more calls to the police than 911 could handle.
Time to go and roll some wino's for the money to build one!!!
Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s
I wonder if it'll hold up...
The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
C'mon, hobbyists have been making and flying this for years and years. I'd be impressed IF they implemented some kind of a height-restriction system to keep the "mower" some distance above the ground, say a few inches or a foor or whatever. But there is nothing unique about this. Sorry.
A blog like any other.
I've discovered that I really have a liking for 'Industrial Squaredance' music...
/me makes an appointment with his psychiatrist.
If a lawnmower had wings, it wouldnt bump it's ... wait... that's not right.
I assumed that "flying lawnmower" meant somethinglike the ill-fated HoverMow device: a British invention, I think, that eliminated the wheels on the lawnmower by making the blades create a strong downdraft. A flexible rubber skirt retrained the air cushion, and voila! a lawnmower that moved effortlessly, even over moderately uneven terrain.
It did NOT, however, cut grass effectively, since the fan-effect tended to smush the grass down out of the way of the blades.
So I was already writing the standard Slashdot "This is old news! I know all about this already" sneer in my head when I clicked on the FA.
But then I saw this startling thing of... yes, of beauty. Fastinating. Even a lawnmower can be graceful.
I am humbled.
Oh, and Fljúgandi....ehhh....sláttuvél? also.
Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by mere idiocy.
Lets hope the actual flying lawnmower stays up longer than the server did..
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
The flying lawnmower's been a staple design in the the "fun fly" catagory of RC (radio control)for years. Always a head turner for those not into RC. Since they tend to fly like a brick outhouse, this one was either very well designed or flown by a really good RC pilot (or both). Nice video too.
I'm still trying to figure out how combustion engines or electric motors help grass cutters do their job better, let alone propulsion mechanisms to compensate for the weight of the motors... which require even more power to compensate for their own weight, and nuisance safety mechanisms which have to stop the engine if you loosen your grip on the controls... in a viscious cycle that deploys so bloody much energy at trimming such little blades of grass. Personally, I get pretty good results - and a nice, trivial amount of peaceful exercise - from an inexpensive, quiet, low-tech reel mower.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
I'm still waiting for the flying toaster.
(no text)
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
Every time I watch the movie it seems even cooler. It should definitely go to the British Invention Show.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
skycutter40-1.wmv
"This shit really works!" -- Possible MirrorDot slogan
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
Next step, flying lawn tractor. Then, to the flying car!! That, according to past predictions on slashdot, is in about 10 years time, if I remember correctly.
It Really Is a Model. Not Really a Mower. We Mean It.
Move along, nothing to see here...
The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
Holy Crap! It's a flying lawnmower! I'm rubbing my eyes to take a second look, and it STILL looks like a damned lawnmower. Where are the wings? Rotors? Is there some guy in an ultralight outside of the frame dragging it around with fishing line?
p.s. Love the background music
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
If you like Cotton Eye Joe (by Rednex), check out Swamp Thing (by The Grid).
OK, flying mower doesn't seem to be that crazy, a flying mower that can do what appear to be unbalanced/eggdrop loops!!!
It also appears to be prop pulled, my first assumption was that this was a heli conversion, hats off to this 'hobbyist'
Unix, an obscure operating system developed by bored researchers in an attempt to get a better game playing experience.
Will this physics book include information about how he brought his niece back from the dead?
Trust me, hovercrafts fare quite poorly on grass. Grass is, by hovercrafting standards, quite porous. The craft's skirt cannot form a tight enough seal with the ground for it to hover evenly. Instead, grass keeps the front-pointing driving edge from moving. This causes the vehicle to buckle forward and start to dig into the ground. In a bizarre attempt to compensate, the prop begins to spin more rapidly, ultimately succeding only in draining the remaining battery.
It's futile to bother with anything but sidewalk pavement, some concrete, linoleum flooring, good sand, calm water, hard wood flooring, flat ice, and packed snow.
Granted, I'm more experienced with models than full scalers. Still, I'd expect a hovering lawnmower to behave more like a "toy" than a military LCAC, so this description holds.
"New Inventions Featured at the BIS"
They should send this thing at the BIS.
Finally a mean dream killing machine but in the same way that makes every 16 year old get some cash in their pockets.
I would guess that if he hit the stump at any kind of angle, the blade could have pushed directly against the stump and twirled the mower up into the air.
It's a remote-controlled (RC) "toy". It's made of balsa/plywood/etc.
Get a book on basic physics, then explain again how the blades created enough lift to set anytype of working lawnmower airborne.
Perhaps the force of the blades hitting the stump was enough to throw the lawnmower into the air. That's what I got from it anyway. Although, I think his story is in fact bullshit.
I have to agree. Looking at the video again...did anybody see a shadow when the mower was close to ground? I didn't. Also, doing doughnuts in the air with a 20lb lawn-mower is no easy feat...That thing certainly went fast...I can't beleive that there's any kind of motor that will haul a 30lb piece of machiery up there and go that fast... That's what I think, anway.
Tell the truth and you won't have so much to remember.
You can appreciate the details.
Amazingly, I just recently recorded a song about flying lawnmowers as part of the album-a-day project . I never thought it would be topical on slashdot...
Is if your goats died or ran away.
a. that thing is hella kewl
b. it will surely teach my neighbor to STFU about my lawn care habits, when it flys by his 2nd story window.
c. who needs c? a and b are convincing enough for me
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
This thing reminds me of a similar item built back in the 70's - a flying Snoopy-on-a-doghouse. It was way cool.
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
Flymo make a variety of hover (and convential) mowers as well as other gardening equipment.
Years ago we had an electric hovering Flymo and it seemed to do the job and was more "fun" than the wheeled variety.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Hovercrafts, unlike rockets, do not use equal and opposite reaction to gain lift. Hovercrafts use air pressure to inflate a not-very-well sealed airbag (the skirt) to lift the whole apparatus off of the ground. At small scales, the skirt to ground seal has much less integrity over grass than over concrete.
Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
I always felt sorry for the people who yelled "is it a bird?" and "is it a plane?" during the intro. Do these people get excited every single time they see a bird or plane?
Idiots (pardon me if you are being sarcastic).....use your EYES...watch the video a few more times then read below.
Of COURSE it's not a real lawn mower that flies, it's made of balsa, monocoat type plastic shrink covering, and has a model airplane engine stuck on the front.
.sig
How clueless are people in this world that these guys need a disclaimer at the bottom of their page:
...For those who do not understand what we do, all our products fly, not mow...
And the lawn mower is not a toy thing for 6000 sqft properties.
Achille Talon
Hop!
So is it legal to just use the song in a video and post it all over the internet? What is the RIAA going to say about this?
...having to hear a dance mix of "Cotton Eyed Joe" while this John Deere's flying in the air makes me think about Joe Bob with his remote controller in his hunter's tree stand with a six pack of Bud beside him, a copy of Bigg Juggs in his back pocket, and a friend below screaming, "THERE'S THE SQUIRREL, MAN, DECAPITATE THE SQUIRREL!" Oh, the humanity!
I was completely expecting some bad roomba clone, and then I saw the damn thing take off - for a few seconds, I was in disbelief - the disconnect between what I expected and what I saw was great... laughed harder than I have in months.
This thing (or a variant) has been around at LEAST 6 years (probably a lot longer, but that long at least I remember seeing a picture of it).
The way it works is that the "deck" of the lawnmower itself is the wing. It is essentially a strange-shaped flying wing. The "bars" to the handle are the rudders, and there's elevons (combination aileron/elevator) behind the deck/wing. You can easily see the engine and propellor on the front as-is.
Neat to see more pictures of it though, even if variants of it have been around for a while.
Erioll
'Since lawns (also known as grass) live usually less than 6" from the ground, how would flying help them do their job better?'
Sod and other grass roofed houses. Now able to be trimmed neat for a better looking neighborhood?
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
... but i can tell you it is unsafe.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
We know, already. Can't you take a joke?
Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
First of all, thank you for clearing this up for him. Second he's not totally wrong, he just doesn't know it. The original hovercraft by Cockrell worked roughly as "Rocket physics 101" describes. Having no skirt, the whole thing had a clearance of 6 inches or more if I recall correcly (not the mere centimeters that the anonymous coward claimed).
Now, a minor correction for you. Taken separately, the hovercraft's skirt should be totally airtight. It should inflate like the inner tube of a tire. However, there is a hole in the base of the hovercraft through which a fraction of the air from the lift fan is channeled. Creating a second high-pressure chamber beneath the inflated skirt, this air cuases the hovercraft to rise several milimeters off of the ground. By definition, the vehicle hovers the full inch (scale size) height of the inflated skirt because the skirt itself does not support he hovercraft - but that's a technicality. My point is that if the skirt itself had any holes aside from the center board's, it would not work.
Wow, you can actually buy mowers that feature "Light and easy mowing on a cushion of air". I never saw anything like it in a store here in Canada.
Big Fish - anyone see it? Watching the first 15 seconds of the video, where what really does look like a lawnmower heads for the clouds, reminded me of something that old guy would have told his kid. I think its awesome! I totally want one. copperheadclgp
Yeah, and Jennifer Love hewitt is a small eskimo boy.
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
Ahh, mediocrity+ detection tool installed.
Friday night surrelity patch applied.
Your evening is protected from mundanity.
[BLOCKQUOTE][I]Will this physics book include information about how he brought his niece back from the dead?[/I][BLOCKQUOTE]
Maybe if it has lots of pictures.
__________________________________
Free your mind - Flush your toilet
"This must be what going mad feels like."
"I am an Adept of Tantric VAX."
I'm 38 years old and flying mowers were around at shows when I was a little kid. It's probably accurate to say that they've been around at least as long or longer than I've been alive.
...And another for dimwits who don't understand the use of the word 'sarcasm'.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
SIERRA TANGO FOXTROT UNIFORM
...despite the naysayers, it's two hours in, and the server hosting a 5MB file is still online.... I suspect government conspiracy. All those that downloaded the file better have their tinfoil hates securely in place! ;)
in Westbank B.C. at an R.C. fly in. Was great untill the operator had to swat a bee that flew under his sun glasses. Went from a flying lawn mower to a buried Dirt Dart!
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
(cue Aladdin music)
A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no
Or where to mow
Or say we're only dreaming
Those things don't work on water! You gotta have POWAAAAH!
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
Now im just waiting a Flying Toaster with Wings. :P
Bond super-villians have been killed for less...
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Technically, it's not a lawn mower if it doesn't mow the lawn, isn't it?
(This comment is meant to sound humourous obviously.)
There was another "flying lawn mower" that was demonstrated during half-time of the NY Jets vs New England Patriots game in 1979. See the descriptionn as item 3 of "The 12 Worst Moments In NY Jets History" http://www.jetsinsider.com/features/full_story.asp ?storyid=43
At least one person died and a few were injured when the airplane lst control over the stands.
My grandfather and uncle had flying lawn mowers in western PA for years in the early to mid eighties. They didn't fly so much as hover slightly above the ground. What made them handy is that they were exceptionally easy to push around. I don't know if this one is really a lawn mower as I have seen a number of novelty flying models that mimic the look but flying lawn mowers really do exist and they are definitely not something new.
That design has been around forever!!!
I saw one in Zilla, WA back in 1986 and it was an old design then.
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
Thats what I said in the late 70s when they showed the original one on the TV show "That's Incredible".
This isnt really new. Which isnt to say this is a bad video. Pretty good actually, and I have seen a lot of RC videos.
"Doctor, it's not the voices I hear in MY head, but the voices I hear in YOUR head that really frighten me."
Sigh, it's Friday night, I think I will go out and get a life instead.
Oh, Who am I kidding? I am on slashdot.
WiWith sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a
good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are going to land, and it could be
dangerous sitting under them as they fly overhead.
- Ross Callon, editor; RFC 1925
they are ecological nightmare and a public nuisance
especially if you want to sleep in the morning.
What can I say about flying lawnmovers?
I hate them too...
Thats hardly anything new.. I saw my first RC flying mower back in 1986 and it wasn't new then.
I was expecting something like this
Hover Lawn mowers
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
is that stupidly genius or ingeniously stupid? I spent 3 minutes of the video wondering if it was a real lawnmower casing or not, then I saw the landing gear underneath... The illusion's great though! Skycutter... I wonder if it'll work to cut off the typhoons or the hurricanes. Ideas?
---- I am certain of only one thing : I know nothing else.
I honestly hope you're not serious.
"You had this look that of an angel, it was such a bad disguise" --Dishwalla
I saw one in Zilla, WA back in 1986 and it was an old design then.
I would have to dig through my old copies of RCM (Radio Control Modeler), but I have the plans for it in one of the issues. I remember still being in the service at the time that issue came out so the plans are in an issue between 1976 and 1982. Along with the lawn mower, are the plans for a flying flat iron.
The truth shall set you free!
Linky:P
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Anyway, the Flymo lawn mowers do hover well, and they seem to be a good design, with the exception that they tend to blow the grass down, which can't help when cutting.
seriously. flying lawnmower. just think about it. its like a running-with-scissors elemental. if someone let these things out nobody would have any fingers anymore.
.....it can trim trees?
My dad used to be part of the Woodwings Flying Circus, and would usually perform on Plumpton Racecourse (UK). One of the guys there, Keith is his name built and flew one of these. Truely a marvious machine indeed! -- Sadly it was incapable of cutting the grass at the same time.
)
:D
It rolled, looped, even capable of doing stall turns, wing-overs and inverted flight.
Basically all it is, is a aerofoil wing. The handle is used as the tail fin to keep the craft stable enough to fly. Trouble is it needs to be flown on full throttle pretty much most of the time to keep it airbourne and to keep the nose up. This would be achived by ajusting the thrust from the engine by a few degrees and by bringing the CG (Centre of gravity) forward.
The main control for this craft would be elevon's.
Just some info to explain what an elevon is...
(Taken from http://www.aviation-history.com/theory/elevon.htm
"The elevon is used as an aileron. Ailerons control motion along the longitudinal axis. The longitudinal axis is an imaginary line that runs from the nose to the tail. Motion about the longitudinal axis is called roll.
The elevon is also used as an elevator. Elevators control motion along the lateral axis. The lateral axis is an imaginary line that extends crosswise, from wingtip to wingtip. Motion about the lateral axis is called pitch."
Anyway, I'm into R/C aircraft and might have to get one of these for myself! I've got a 60-size 2-stroke engine doing nowt at the moment!
Someone on /. commenting on an article, without reading it first.
Say it isn't so.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
RC kits for flying lawn mowers have been available for years. There are other rediculous flying this as well, several of which are available from this store, which happens to be the first link on the page when I Googled it. There are lots more where that came from, including a flying witch, flying doghouse, flying US flag, and a flying stop sign.
Okay, I am browsing at +1 but still I woulda thought someone was had posted a clever enough jab at
(in addition to download != streaming).- 4r0g
FLying RC mowers have been around for ages. This one just looks nicer than what i've seen to date. Now, i've seen pigs fly, seen a brick go flying, but i've yet to see cows fly!
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
I'll pick the 747.
Do a Google search for the Gimli Glider. Not a 747, but another 7x7 series jet which most likely had similar (if not worse) gliding capabilities.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Great. What with all the problems they're having with their Cisco border routers right now, I have half a mind to drive down to school and watch the IT room smoke. Perhaps this'll convince them that redundancy doesn't count when it's all in the same box.
With a small token backyard. Try using a reel mower on an acre front yard and a 1/2 acre backyard.
Lawnmowers mow... ahh nevermind.
Right. I may not have been too clear in my post. I intended to illustrate that the skirt itself did not have a hole in it (and was therefore airtight on its own), but instead was joined to a board that, itself, did have a hole. About a third of the air was sent straight down. All the deisgns you, the grandparent poster, and I wrote are fine and practical - it's only the way-back ancestor post that was downright wrong.