Air Tractor AT-300

The Air Tractor AT-300 is a family of agricultural aircraft that first flew in the United States on September 1973. Type certification was awarded to Air Tractor in November the same year, and serial production commenced in 1976. Of low-wing monoplane taildragger configuration, they carry a chemical hopper between the engine firewall and the cockpit.

Variants

Specifications (AT-301A)

Data from Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1988-89

General characteristics

Air Tractor

Air Tractor Inc. is a United States aircraft manufacturer based in Olney, Texas. Leland Snow founded the company in 1978 in order to manufacture a new agricultural aircraft derived from the S-2B aircraft (designed by his previous company Snow Aeronautical). Designated Model AT-300 Air Tractor, the new aircraft first flew in 1973. In 2004 the 2000th Air Tractor aircraft was delivered.

History

Leland Snow began designing his first airplane, the S-1, in 1951. The 23-year-old Snow completed test flights with the S-1 in 1953. Snow’s S-1 flew dusting and spraying jobs in the Texas Rio Grande Valley and in Nicaragua until 1957. He followed-up the S-1 with the models S-2A and S-2B, which were built when Snow moved to production facilities in Olney, Texas in 1958.

In 1965, Leland Snow sold his company to Rockwell-Standard and was appointed a Vice President of the Aero Commander division. During this time, the Model S-2R was developed and named the Thrush. The first 100 Thrush aircraft were built at the Olney Division before the plant was closed and Thrush production moved to Georgia in 1970. More than 500 aircraft were produced under Snow Aeronautical Corporation and Rockwell-Standard in Olney.