Friday Fun: Snow S-2 one of the first agricultural aircraft

 I knew that I wanted to focus on some Friday Fun today. In considering what I wanted to share, it has been awhile since I shared anything on ag aviation, so I knew that is what I wanted to focus on for today's Friday's Fun. It did not take me long to find this video by Tyson of Ag Aviation Adventures showcasing the Snow S-2. The Snow S-2 was designed by Leland Snow and built by Snow Aeronautical. Leland Snow designed the first purpose-built aircraft for ag aviation. If you go to Ag Aviation Adventure's video showcasing a fully restored Snow- S-2 and expand the "show more option" you can see their excellent commentary on the Snow S-2, Leland Snow, and commentary about their video. Here is what they say about Leland Snow:

Leland Snow is the pioneer of Ag Aviation and he is the brains behind both of the two most popular ag aircraft used today. After the Snow S-2, he went on to rename/redevelop under the name Thrush Aircraft. When Thrush moved from Texas to Georgia, Leland resigned and started Air Tractor. It’s hard to say what Ag Aviation would be today without Leland Snow. What’s even more wild, shortly after Leland, who at the time was 23, completed test flights with the S-1 in 1953 he flew the S-1 on application jobs in both Texas AND in Nicaragua until 1957. Ag Air Update has dubbed Leland Snow “the godfather of the modern ag aircraft” and we couldn’t agree more.  

Enjoy this video on Ag Aviation Adventure's video showcasing the Snow S-2.

Direct link to video by Ag Aviation Adventures on YouTube

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.

More on Air Tractor and Leland Snow

At some point in the last couple of weeks, I learned about Leland Snow and his relationship to both the Air Tractor aircrafts and the Ayres Thrush. I mentioned in my entry on the Ayres Thrush SEAT that Leland Snow designed and built the Snow S2 airplanes, an early ancestor of the current Thrush Commander line of aircrafts.

As you can see from this history, after he sold his company to Rockwell-Standard in 1965, he was hired by Rockwell as Vice President where he worked on the S2-R models, aka the Thrush Commanders. In 1978, he quit Rockwell, went back to Olney Texas where he started out, and began building the Air Tractors. The first Air Tractor was the AT-300. In addition to the AT-802 models, Air Tractor builds the 401, 402, 502, and 602 models. Late last year, Air Tractor built their 300th AT-802F. These firefighting SEATs are fighting fires world wide from Croatia to South Africa to Australia to America.

Air Tractor is in the process of developing a larger model, called the AT-1002 with a 1060 gallon hopper. See this article for more information.