manufacturer . for the converted aeroplane taken on the australasian antarctic expedition see air tractor sledge . for the device to assist childbirth see james young simpson . air tractor inc. founded 1978 founder leland snow headquarters olney texas products agricultural aircraft website www.airtractor.com 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 . 1 contents 1 history 2 products 3 gallery 4 references 5 further reading 6 external links history edit 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 . snow resigned from rockwell and devoted the next two years designing the air tractor . construction began in 1972 on the at 300 which later became the at 301 . air tractor s first turbine model the at 302 was introduced in 1977 . sixteen years later air tractor delivered its 1 100th airplane and soon began expanding the olney plant for increased capacity . today air tractor produces a line of aircraft that includes 400 500 600 and 800 gallon capacity planes powered by pratt & whitney piston or turbine engines . products edit air tractor at 300 1973 single seat low wing monoplane aerial application aircraft with single radial piston engine air tractor at 301 300 variant with larger piston engine air tractor at 302 300 variant with turboprop engine air tractor at 400 1979 development of 300 revised for use of turboprop engine air tractor at 401 400 variant with greater wingspan air tractor at 402 401 variant with different turboprop engine air tractor at 501 1986 development of 400 with larger fuselage and hopper greater wingspan and seat for an observer . uses radial piston engine air tractor at 502 single seat version of 501 air tractor at 502b introduced in 1987 2 air tractor at 503 development of 501 with turboprop engine air tractor at 503a dual control trainer version of at 503 with shorter at 401 wings air tractor at 503t trainer variant of 503 . uses smaller wingspan air tractor at 504 trainer air tractor at 602 1995 development of 503 with larger hopper and greater wingspan air tractor at 802 1990 development of 503 with larger hopper and greater wingspan adapted for aerial firefighting . air tractor at 802u adapted for surveillance and military operations . air tractor at 1002 ; developed from 802 with larger fuel and retardant tanks gallery edit at 802af floatplane at 602 on display 2 seater at 802 floatplane fire fighting air boss a coin at 802u at the paris air show an at 802 dropping a full load of fire suppressant air tractor at 502b on the ramp at belle glade airport florida as weather moves in off lake okechobee . the single engine aircraft has a 52 foot wingspan three wheels . it was first manufactured in 1987 . detail of the sprayer system attached to an air tractor at 502b aircraft . image shows the sprayer system s air driven pump . references edit air tractor website accessed 07 feb 2008 quoted on 4 june 2013 from the air tractor corporate website at http www.airtractor.com aircraft 502b . further reading edit gunston bill 1993 . world encyclopedia of aircraft manufacturers . annapolis naval institute press . p. 20 . simpson r. w. 1995 . airlife s general aviation . shrewsbury airlife publishing . p. 31 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to air tractor . air tractor official web air tractor europe official web air tractor on facebook air tractor europe official facebook profile air tractor on facebook v t e aircraft produced by air tractor at 300 at 301 at 302 at 400 at 401 at 402 at 501 at 502 at 503 at 503t at 602 at 802 at 802u fire boss retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title air tractor & oldid 686515020 categories aircraft manufacturers of the united statescompanies based in texashidden categories commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages e tinafran aisbahasa indonesiaportugu s edit links this page was last modified on 19 october 2015 at 16 09 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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