Crop Duster Aircraft

Crop Duster Aircraft - In "less than 90 seconds" the planes are over the cranberry or blueberry bogs, says Curt Nixholm, the company's co-owner. Pilots descend and manually turn on their spray booms as they pass the perimeters at a little over 209 kph.

Yoeli says Ag Cormorant will fly at 111 kph over fields and slower for application to orchards. A light bar mounted ahead of the AT-602's cockpit using data supplied by the airplane's GPS helps pilots line up for the parallel lines they will fly across the bogs.

Crop Duster Aircraft

Their spray booms are calibrated prior to flights with pressures and nozzles adjusted to spray chemicals at the droplet size and rates called for on fungicide labels — usually 38 liters per half hectare — a rate that would rapidly empty the 500-liter Ag Cormorant.

Rockwell Thrush Commander

The Rockwell Thrush Commander first flew in 1956 and is still in production. It has room for a pilot and a passenger, and can carry 1,514 liters of chemicals. It has been used by the US State Department for anti-narcotics spraying, but is generally used purely for agricultural crop spraying.

It was designed by Leland Snow, himself an experienced agricultural pilot. It has a top speed of 122 knots and, fully loaded, can carry a total capacity of 6,000 lbs. In 2004 the National Agricultural Aviation Association contacted the National Air and Space Museum regarding the potential addition of modern crop duster aircraft to the collection and learned that the Museum was indeed searching for an appropriate agricultural aircraft.

The NAAA alerted the agricultural aviation community and organizations, and in August 2005, Ralph Holsclaw and Growers Air Service offered to donate their Grumman G-164A Super Ag-Cat. Growers delivered the Ag-Cat, completely cleaned of all chemical residues and restored, to the Museum's Garber Facility in March 2008.

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M- Dromader

through Twitter. The M-18 Dromader was first designed by PZL-Mielec, a Polish company, in collaboration with Rockwell International. Its aim was to produce an aircraft for the Western market that could be used for both agricultural purposes and fire fighting.

It remains one of Poland's most successful export aircraft. It first flew in 1976, has a top speed of 128 knots and has a maximum takeoff capacity of 9,230 lbs. The aircraft has been sold to more than 200 countries, and is still in service.

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According to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, there were 52 accidents in the U.S. involving aerial applicators in 2018 with eight fatalities, up one from 2017's seven fatalities. The FAA's most recent annual general aviation and air carrier activity survey shows that ag pilots flew 1.1 million hours in 2017. Using these numbers, the National Agricultural Aviation Association calculates 6.2 accidents per 100,000 flight hours for aerial applicators with a fatal accident rate per 100,000 flight

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hours of 0.65. That compares favorably with the FAA's fatal accident rate for general aviation in 2016 (the most recent data) of 0.89 per 100,000 flight hours. Accident statistics for a drone like the Ag Cormorant don't exist yet.

Schweizer built a total of 2,646 Ag-Cats; 1,730 were 164s and 164As for Grumman between 1959 and 1980. Schweizer purchased the certificate from Gulfstream (formerly Grumman) and, beginning in 1981, introduced subsequent models with engine options and longer wings and fuselages to accommodate larger hoppers and their payloads: the Super-

B 600, Super-B PT6 turbine, and the PT6A Turbo Ag-Cat D with a 500 gallon hopper. Ag-Cat Corp bought the certificate in 1995 and built about 5 aircraft; then Allied Ag-Cat purchased the design but did not build any aircraft.

Ethiopia Air Lines built 15 Super-B turbines in the 1990s Many radial and turbine conversions continue to power this rugged aircraft and have substantially lengthened the life of this great design. On an August day in Ohio back in 1921, a U.S.

Ag Pilots Are In High Demand

Army pilot took off from an airfield near Dayton, his Curtiss JN-4 Jenny fitted with a small makeshift hopper (a metal container) and a release mechanism. The Jenny dropped low over an orchard, spreading powdered lead arsenate insecticide in an attempt to kill the caterpillars that were happily munching on the leaves of the catalpa trees, a hardwood used for railroad ties and fence posts.

This Grumman G-164 Ag-Cat, N332Y (serial number 207), rolled off the factory line on May 2, 1963, and, in 1974, became a G-164A Super Ag-Cat, with the change to a 600 hp engine and a 300 gallon hopper.

Although it has 12,778 flight hours applying seed, fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides to almost any crop grown in the United States, all chemical residues have been removed. In 2008, many radial and turbine powered Ag-Cats are still in use.

One of the most overlooked jobs in the aviation field is that of a crop dusting pilot. When most people think of crop dusting, they picture a grizzled old man in an ancient biplane, flying low over a field in Illinois.

Size Matters

He appears suddenly on the horizon and disappears almost before you have the chance to register him. "Imagine how this would change if instead of flying back and forth to a remote field to reload, these aircraft could, whenever necessary, land on a truck that's less than a minute away and be off again after a 20-second auto-refill to

continue working. That's how Ag Cormorant will operate, so the 'optimal design load' for our case is no more than 500 kilograms," he says. Today's crop dusting business is completely different, with million-dollar turbine-engine planes, intricate GPS

systems for planning the row flights and triggering the sprayers, and well-trained, experienced pilots. In fact, there is probably a lot about crop dusting that you don't know. Read on to decide if a career as a crop dusting

pilot is right for you. With the centennial of crop dusting approaching, aerial application pilots tell me they feel more relevant, capable and safer than ever in the vocation's storied history. They could soon start feeling the pinch from a 21st-century competitor, however.

Organizations Like The National Agricultural Aviation Association Naaa Are Working To Change The Stereotype Of The Cavalier Ag Pilot

Drone makers currently offer a range of small unmanned aircraft for aerial application but anticipate their wares could gradually displace ag pilots and their aircraft, although opinions vary about the feasibility of that. The Ag Cormorant, yet to be certified or even tested, will carry up to 500 liters of wet or dry chemicals.

Ag pilots ask: How could an unmanned aircraft capable of carrying just one-sixth of the load of the manned AT-802 match its efficiency? Yoeli has an answer: By employing an entirely different concept of operations. While still focused on traditional aerial application planes, Air Tractor has made a foray into unmanned aircraft, Hirsch says.

In May 2016, Air Tractor acquired Hangar 78 UAV, maker of the Yield Defender, a small autonomous quadcopter fitted with an infrared camera to shoot photos and videos of crops. But Hirsch notes that certification for large unmanned aerial application aircraft capable of carrying loads comparable to manned ag aircraft in the U.S.

is "out of sight now, maybe 10 years away or more." It's realistic, he observes, noting that the unmanned aircraft offered for aerial application so far cannot legally spray many chemicals at the rates specified by their labels because they lack capacity and booms capable of meeting the requirements.

Conventionally Piloted Aerial Application

' Yoeli concedes that the Ag Cormorant may not be able to spray chemicals at the volume manned ag aircraft can but explains that another factor governs the 500-liter capacity of the Tactical Robotics drone — the Missile Technology Control Regime.

Based in London, Ben Moresby has been writing since 2002. His eHow articles cover topics in culture, current affairs and travel. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from the University of East Anglia (UK).

In the U.S., aerial application drones "are generally small currently and have very limited capability" says Steven Thomson, engineering programs and projects leader for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, part of the U.S. Agriculture Department.

With a background in aerial application crop protection materials as well as unmanned aerial systems, he views drones as "supplemental" to manned aircraft in the near to midterm. Two well known air show pilots have flown the Ag-Cats for years--Gene Soucy and his Show Cat and Joe Kittinger at his Rosie O'Grady Flying Circus show.

Grumman Ag Cat

While most Ag-Cats remain in the commercial agricultural business, some are flown for firefighting and banner towing, and a few are privately owned. The Grumman G-164 Ag-Cat is the first aircraft specifically designed by a major aircraft company for agricultural aviation, the aerial application of chemical, fertilizer and seed, and it is one of the most successful with nearly 2,700 built.

After consulting with agricultural pilots, Grumman introduced the Ag-Cat in 1957. The Ag-Cat handles the rigors of very low altitude, high "g force" agricultural application maneuvers with rugged construction, a low stall speed and good visibility.

Hubler believes that drones can complement manned aerial application, appropriate for treating small corners of fields and crops near housing, buildings or forests — any area an ag aircraft struggles to spray safely and effectively. He also says that development of unmanned aerial applicators should come from within the existing community of aerial applicators.

Hubler says he's signed a nondisclosure agreement with a drone maker to develop "a cost-effective unmanned sprayer" capable of carrying 189 liters of chemicals — about one-tenth of the capacity of the average ag airplane. Crop-dusting aircraft must have several important attributes.

Planes Are Equipped With State-Of-The-Art Equipment

They should be able to operate well at low altitudes, be maneuverable and have a high load capacity. Because of these particular demands, several models have become prevalent within the industry. Most have been specially designed for agricultural use.

Thanks to the recent farming boom, aerial application is a hot field. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, hours flown by crop-dusters rose 29% from 2003 to 2007. This is in sharp contrast to the majority of

other aviation fields; most aircraft makers are in a slump, while leading aerial application manufacturer Air Tractor Inc. in Olney, Texas, is making more planes every year. Nevertheless, Yoeli says the Missile Technology Control Regime "places severe limits on the export of unmanned aircraft that can carry more than 500 Kg for more than 300 kilometers."

The restriction may be lifted in the future, he predicts, "but for now it's an export-limiting factor." Jim Hirsch is the president of Olney, Texas-based Air Tractor, the world's leading producer of aerial application planes. He told me that his firm's newest model, the AT-1002, will carry even more, up to 3,875 liters, once it completes FAA certification.

The First Aerial Application Wasn’t From A Plane

In 1955, Grumman preliminary design engineers Joe Lippert and Arthur Koch proposed the design for a "purpose built" crop dusting airplane as a means of fulfilling a pressing need by the agricultural community as well as the perceived need for Grumman to diversify its product lines.

A major consideration for their rugged and maneuverable biplane duster concept was the availability of thousands of inexpensive war surplus 220 horsepower Continental radial engines. The aircraft structure would have to be very strong to accommodate the large hopper, payload, and accompanying spray/spreader equipment and sustain safe flight.

For expediency, prototype construction began at Lippert's home as Roy Grumman approved their plan for experimental test prototypes in 1956 and also provided a hanger and a limited number of personnel and funding for building and testing at Bethpage, Long Island.

Four years ago, Hubler and Valley Air began using night-vision goggles to spray after dark. "They actually increase your depth perception," Hubler tells me. "I can see obstacles like power wires at night better than I can during the day."

Cost And Safety

He notes that aerial applicators in Southern California are also using the goggles now. Aerial application accelerated after World War II, spurred by development of a variety of insecticides, fungicides and herbicides and a swift increase in the average size of farms.

Hopper size steadily increased to accommodate larger dry and wet loads — all the way up to the 3,028-liter hopper found on today's piloted Air Tractor 802 planes. The skill of ag pilots, averaging 19 years of experience according to the National Agricultural Aviation Association, allows them to spray accurately, minimizing drift — a byproduct of the aerodynamic vortices (swirling air) generated by the wingtips, propellers and rotors of ag aircraft and

helicopters. Drift can result in damage to crops, wildlife and humans adjacent to fields being sprayed. Consequently U.S.-based aerial applicators are monitored for violations by the Environmental Protection Agency. The much larger, more capable Ag Cormorant has no price at this point.

Yoeli says that its cost will be competitive with manned ag aircraft because it doesn't carry a salaried pilot who must be insured and requires just one supervisor. That's not to say it will be inexpensive.

Piper Pa- Pawnee Brave

The company's Ag Cormorant prototype is a turbine engine-powered rotorcraft with enclosed rotors that takes off and lands vertically. Capable of carrying a 500-liter load, it is designed to fly autonomously for aerial application. With its size and power, it's intended for large-scale applications and, as far as I could learn, is larger than any of the drones that are being flown for aerial application.

Yoeli thinks that in five to seven years Tactical Robotics can "start earning money with this aircraft." Ag Cormorant is the result of a partnership announced in March between Tactical Robotics and Tel Aviv-based Adama Ltd.

(a subsidiary of China National Chemical Corp.), which produces crop protection products for aerial and ground applications. The Ag Cormorant prototype first flew in February and is an adaptation of Tactical Robotics' Cormorant prototype that made its initial flight in 2015. The Cormorant was designed for military and border security tasks.

The NAAA's mission is to promote and foster the development of aerial application and the significance that it plays on a global scale. Its top priorities are education, training, and safety. The NAAA has changed what it means to be

Robotic Aerial Application

an ag pilot by promoting research, new technologies, and new application techniques. Pilots say their well-oiled operations are still more efficient than anything the drone world has conjured. Consider Downstown Aero Crop Service Inc. in the cranberry and blueberry country of New Jersey.

Downstown operates six ag planes, including three Air Tractor-602s that each carry a 2,271-liter load. Four pilots and ground crew treat a variety of crops but primarily spray fungicide, insecticide and fertilizer on 1,500 hectares of cranberry and blueberry bogs.

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