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, S-2B and S-2C (now the Ayres Thrush), which were produced in Olney, Texas from 1958.[1][additional citation(s) needed]
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.[1]
Snow resigned from Rockwell and devoted the next two years designing the Air Tractor. Construction on the AT-300, which later became the AT-301, began in 1972. Air Tractor's first turbine model, the AT-302, was introduced in 1977.
Sixteen years later (1993), Air Tractor delivered its 1,100th airplane and soon began expanding the Olney plant for increased capacity, and less than five years after that (1998), the 2,000th Snow-designed airplane was built there.[1]
Since then (1998), Air Tractor has produced a line of aircraft that includes 400,500,600, and 800USgal (330,420,500, and 670impgal; 1,500,1,900,2,300, and 3,000L) capacity planes powered by Pratt & Whitney piston and turbine engines. [2][additional citation(s) needed]
From 2011 through 2018, Air Tractor consistently delivered more turboprop-powered fixed wing aircraft than any other manufacturer; of 601 total worldwide general aviation turboprop deliveries in 2018, 141 (23%) were Air Tractors.[3] Now (2024), even the entry level agricultural plane AT-402B is available only with turbine engine.[4][additional citation(s) needed]
On July 1, 2008 Air Tractor, Inc. became an employee-owned company with the establishment of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan.[1]
On February 20, 2011, at age 80, Leland Snow passed away while jogging near his home in Wichita Falls, Texas. His plans and notes for the next day’s engineering meeting were on his desk at home.
Snow is remembered as a quiet, generous, and kind-natured family man whose focus and determination built one of the world’s leading aircraft manufacturing companies.
Yet, for all his many accomplishments and busy schedule, Leland Snow always made time to visit with ag pilots who dropped by his office or National Agricultural Aviation Association meetings. His commitment to pilot safety and drift minimization programs helped improve the public image of our industry.
His wish was to pass the company to the employees who had devoted their skills and passion to Air Tractor.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
