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
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 . . . . .
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
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.
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.
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
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If you like Cotton Eye Joe (by Rednex), check out Swamp Thing (by The Grid).
It's a remote-controlled (RC) "toy". It's made of balsa/plywood/etc.
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...
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.
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?
I used one from when I was 10 until it died when I was 19. Thing mowed great. There was no throttle (most basic push mowers have a fixed throttle even now). It was light enough to hang on the wall of our shed. As to bagging, as long as the blade was sharpened regularly (seasonally), then it mulched the grass to a very fine grade, which in turn kept the grass fertilized. We had 3/4 of an acre of grass, some of it on a ~45 degree slope. Instead of pushing a mower up and down, I would go side to side, standing above the mower (try that with a conventional mower). The only drawbacks to the one I had, was that it was 2 stroke (different mix than our weed eater or chainsaws), and to start it, you held the handle straight up abothe the engine, placed your left foot on the mower deck side (there was a non-slip foot pad there), tilted the mower towards you, and pulled like a SOB hoping it would start. You also had to keep your lawn well cut, because if it got too high to mulch, the grass would clump and you'd have to rack & remow the areas that were collapsed by the clumps.
My dad still has it hanging in his shop (he's moved twice since I grew up), thinking that he'll repair it some day. As a mechanic, he makes a great lawyer. Guess I'll end up inhereting it.
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
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.
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.
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.