RIP Leland Snow

Leland Snow, the founder of Air Tractor died on Sunday, February 20 while jogging. He was 80. I offer my condolences to his family, friends, co-workers and all who loved him.

Fairly early in writing on aerial wildland fire fighting, I heard about Leland Snow when I was writing about the Air Tractor and the Thrush , two SEATs. He designed the Snow S2 airplanes in the early 1950s. By 1957-58 he had moved the production operations of what was later the Thrush Aircraft company to Olney TX. The Thrush aircraft used in fire fighting are descendants of the Snow S2. The Thrush aircraft used in fire fighting are descendants of the Snow S2. He owned the Thrush Aircraft to Rockwell-Standard in 1965 and was hired by Rockwell as a VP where he worked on Thrush Commanders. He left Rockwell around 1972 and went back to Olney, TX and began building Air Tractors.  You can read more about Leland on the Air Tractor website. In addition, you may want to read this article from the Times Record News. Bill Gabberts post on Leland Snow's passing may be found here.

Over the course of the last two years I have encountered many interesting and unique personalities in the aviation community, through books as well as correspondence with pilots and others in the tanker community. I only knew Leland Snow through a couple of articles that I read, but it is clear to me that he was an interesting and unique aviation personality. His loss will be felt, I am sure. It is my loss that I did not know him better. I understand that he has written an autobiography, I am going to try to dig up a copy and read it so that I can get to know him better.

Updated on May 20, 2013: Thanks to someone who contacted me to tell me that Leland Snow left Rockwell around 1972. I had incorrectly reported the date when Leland Snow left Rockwell and am thankful for my anonymous friend who corrected me. I apologize for the error.