Who is RG Keen?

[R.G.]

The flying lawnmower is a kind of a joke. I actually did invent it. Back in the dim reaches of primary school, sometime in the early 1960s, ground effect vehicles were a hot topic. My father was making me mow the yard with our rotary mower, and it struck me that with the thing already spinning a blade that it would be clever to make the blade be a propeller and have it float on a cushion of air. Cool, right? I thought so and made many drawings of it.

I forgot about it and years later I read in "Popular Science" that the Fly-Mo had been invented. It was ...exactly... what I had imagined and sketched. They're still made and sold on the web, or were a year or two ago when I looked them up.

That's beside the issue that an air-cushion lawnmower is a terrible idea. It floats on an air cushion, OK. But there are some issues in how well it cuts grass. 

Like - how do you set the height it cuts the grass? And once set, how do you keep it there?  You can't.
And what if the ground is not perfectly level? The mower has no friction with the ground and slides downhill, whichever way downhill is. Mowing on any kind of a slope is not only difficult as you have to hold the mower steady by pure arm strength, it's downright dangerous as there is a steel blade driven by a 3-4HP motor which can go anywhere it wants if you look away for a second. Or all by itself, down the hill, at high speeds.
Then there's the issue of how well it actually cuts. If you don't hold the handle so the blades are perfectly level, it scalps on the low side and does not cut the high side. Not to mention that the blowing air flattens the grass so it doesn't all get cut and springs back up after you've passed.

I keep this in my head to remind me that new ideas may or may not be divine inspiration. They can be GREAT! or OK-ish, or inspired by the devil, and it's up to me to sort them out; ideally I'll do the sorting before I open my mouth about it. 

[tiges_ tendres]

The flying lawnmower is a kind of a joke. I actually did invent it. Back in the dim reaches of primary school, sometime in the early 1960s, ground effect vehicles were a hot topic. My father was making me mow the yard with our rotary mower, and it struck me that with the thing already spinning a blade that it would be clever to make the blade be a propeller and have it float on a cushion of air. Cool, right? I thought so and made many drawings of it.

I forgot about it and years later I read in "Popular Science" that the Fly-Mo had been invented. It was ...exactly... what I had imagined and sketched. They're still made and sold on the web, or were a year or two ago when I looked them up.

That's beside the issue that an air-cushion lawnmower is a terrible idea. It floats on an air cushion, OK. But there are some issues in how well it cuts grass. 

Like - how do you set the height it cuts the grass? And once set, how do you keep it there?  You can't.
And what if the ground is not perfectly level? The mower has no friction with the ground and slides downhill, whichever way downhill is. Mowing on any kind of a slope is not only difficult as you have to hold the mower steady by pure arm strength, it's downright dangerous as there is a steel blade driven by a 3-4HP motor which can go anywhere it wants if you look away for a second. Or all by itself, down the hill, at high speeds.
Then there's the issue of how well it actually cuts. If you don't hold the handle so the blades are perfectly level, it scalps on the low side and does not cut the high side. Not to mention that the blowing air flattens the grass so it doesn't all get cut and springs back up after you've passed.

I keep this in my head to remind me that new ideas may or may not be divine inspiration. They can be GREAT! or OK-ish, or inspired by the devil, and it's up to me to sort them out; ideally I'll do the sorting before I open my mouth about it. 

The fly mow is a staple of British suburban life.  Our yard was not big enough for any kind of petrol powered mower, and electric mowers were pretty much what everyone had.  No you cant really get lawn stripes, but if you just have a little patch of grass like we did, they work great.



http://www.abbeygardensales.co.uk/subprod/flymo-electric-mowers-0002373.aspx  still going strong!

[R.G.]

Wow! That's neat. They're really in widespread use? 

I can see that for a small, level garden lawn, it might work OK, and would certainly be better than maintaining a petrol powered unit. Electrical versions would work, and the lighter the better.

We often face a different issue over here in the colonies. The lawns are larger in some but not all places; but often they are also very un-level and not very flat (level-ness and flatness are different qualities).

I can promise you that a Fly-Mo would not work for me, especially around that spot where I kept trying to dig out a pesky rock until I figured out that it was not a loose rock - it was a bit of the underlying planet sticking through the dirt.  I covered it back up and left it.Or on that nastly little slope over to the west where I have to mow across the hillside. 

[GREEN FUZ]

A brief history.

http://www.flymo.co.uk/node2003.aspx

R.G, looks like you missed out on 1,000,000 sales worth of royalties/residuals/whatevers. Not to mention the Queen`s Award. Whatever that is.

[R.G.]

Oh,  KEWL~! I have never seen the history before.

It appears that in fact, I was not the first inventor. I was in the fouth grade in 1960/61 when I did my first drawings. Looks like %^&*erell beat me by about a year.

Frankly, I'm not at all bummed to release any claims to that one. 

As a kid, I had no ability to make or get one made, and when I told adults they just smiled and patted me on the head or the equivalent.

But sheepskin keycap covers for computer keyboards - where's the history on that one? Eh?   

[petemoore]

  It's just to say that it varies greatly from time to time, depending on who is reading.

[tiges_ tendres]

Wow! That's neat. They're really in widespread use? 

I can see that for a small, level garden lawn, it might work OK, and would certainly be better than maintaining a petrol powered unit. Electrical versions would work, and the lighter the better.

We often face a different issue over here in the colonies. The lawns are larger in some but not all places; but often they are also very un-level and not very flat (level-ness and flatness are different qualities).

I can promise you that a Fly-Mo would not work for me, especially around that spot where I kept trying to dig out a pesky rock until I figured out that it was not a loose rock - it was a bit of the underlying planet sticking through the dirt.  I covered it back up and left it.Or on that nastly little slope over to the west where I have to mow across the hillside. 

My other favourite thing about the fly mow is the ease at which you can hover the mower over your feet or even the electrical cable and potentially kill/maim oneself.  Much harder with a petrol mower!

[vanhansen]

Hey, R.G., submit the idea for a pedal named "Flying Mower" to Bob and see what he says...LOL.  What the circuit does, I have no idea, I just dig the name. 

You could make sheepskin covers for the V2 series. 

[Ben N]

And, can it possibly help me in the loathsome duty of mowing my oversized yard?

Dude, doncha know, this is possibly the only reason for having teenage sons (other than having them surreptitiously spirit your guitars into their possession and control and blame your claim to ownership on your creeping senility.) 

[DougH]

When I first heard the term flying lawnmower I imagined a lawn mower flying around 20 or so feet off the ground, randomly lopping people's heads off and etc. I could imagine the stereotypical motherly lecture: "Don't play with flying lawnmowers- you'll put your eye out and cut your head off". (In which case the eye is not a problem anymore...)

I just figured it was an engineering in-joke or something, like a self-eating watermelon. Imagine my horror to find out it's real... 

[Mark Hammer]

And, can it possibly help me in the loathsome duty of mowing my oversized yard?

Dude, doncha know, this is possibly the only reason for having teenage sons (other than having them surreptitiously spirit your guitars into their possession and control and blame your claim to ownership on your creeping senility.) 

Having attempted use of that "resource", my view is that it might be more productive to devise a kind of grass-cutting "Roomba" ( http://www.robotshop.ca/home/products/personal-domestic-robots/robot-vacuums/irobot-robot-vacuum-roomba/index.html?gclid=CLK_zN2UtpYCFQITswodESlbLA ) and install some good fencing it can bounce off of.  To the best of my knowledge, mechanical devices rarely use the expression "In a sec....".

Or, you could simply make the task less tedious and turn it into a question of macho pride by installing the "mechanical bull" function on your ride-on.  "He fell off twice, but man, look how level the lawn is!".

[vanhansen]

I like your idea, Mark.  When it gets hot down here, I don't feel like mowing the lawn and it usually means getting up at the crack of dawn before it gets really hot to get it done.  A little robot contraption like that would be great.  I'm not totally against a remote control option on it either. 

[frank_p]

Poor squirrels...

[Mark Hammer]

Do they make good mulch?

[jacobyjd]

I like your idea, Mark.  When it gets hot down here, I don't feel like mowing the lawn and it usually means getting up at the crack of dawn before it gets really hot to get it done.  A little robot contraption like that would be great.  I'm not totally against a remote control option on it either. 

And, can it possibly help me in the loathsome duty of mowing my oversized yard?

Dude, doncha know, this is possibly the only reason for having teenage sons (other than having them surreptitiously spirit your guitars into their possession and control and blame your claim to ownership on your creeping senility.) 

Having attempted use of that "resource", my view is that it might be more productive to devise a kind of grass-cutting "Roomba" ( http://www.robotshop.ca/home/products/personal-domestic-robots/robot-vacuums/irobot-robot-vacuum-roomba/index.html?gclid=CLK_zN2UtpYCFQITswodESlbLA ) and install some good fencing it can bounce off of.  To the best of my knowledge, mechanical devices rarely use the expression "In a sec....".

Or, you could simply make the task less tedious and turn it into a question of macho pride by installing the "mechanical bull" function on your ride-on.  "He fell off twice, but man, look how level the lawn is!".

Already been done:


Interesting tidbit--this is a later incarnation of the first product ever sold by Woot.com 

[frank_p]

Do they make good mulch?

Just remembered me when the neighbor's cat got eaten by the municipal snowblower.  There was blood on two blocks lenghts.  What I want to say is that a flying automated machinery with a big blade on it might not be a so good idea.  Given the number of persons that go to the hospital for cut toes with ordinary lawnmowers...

[Dagreb]

When I first heard the term flying lawnmower I imagined a lawn mower flying around 20 or so feet off the ground, randomly lopping people's heads off and etc. I could imagine the stereotypical motherly lecture: "Don't play with flying lawnmowers- you'll put your eye out and cut your head off". (In which case the eye is not a problem anymore...)

I just figured it was an engineering in-joke or something, like a self-eating watermelon. Imagine my horror to find out it's real... 

Isn't an Ultralight essentially a "flying lawnmower"?
Oh,the self-eating watermelon is real.
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/%7Epabailey/sewmAnimation.html

[salocin]

And what if the ground is not perfectly level? The mower has no friction with the ground and slides downhill, whichever way downhill is. Mowing on any kind of a slope is not only difficult as you have to hold the mower steady by pure arm strength, it's downright dangerous as there is a steel blade driven by a 3-4HP motor which can go anywhere it wants if you look away for a second. Or all by itself, down the hill, at high speeds.

I live in a rather hilly city, and the city contractors cutting public grass areas used to tie a rope to the handle of one of those things and lower it down steep banks that needed mowing then pull it side to side while standing on the top of the bank. Increased Health and Safety regulations seemed to kill that one.

I also have memories of cutting my grandparents lawn with one of those when i was (probably far too) young.

[frequencycentral]

Topical bump!!

[Quackzed]