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The 1925-vintage Travel Air was one of the pioneers, and it was primarily used before the Stearmans showed up in the late 1940s. Most crop-dusters were the Travel Air 4000s, and more than 1,000 Travel Airs were manufactured.

The beautiful blue and yellow example featured here is owned by the Precissi Flying Service, and it's the world's last cropdusting Travel Air! It's powered by a sevencylinder Continental radial engine and has a 150-gallon hopper. At work, it flies at 80 to 85mph.

Three models of Cessna were designed for Ag work-the Ag Wagon, Ag Truck and Ag Husky. The Cessna 188 Ag Wagon has a 200-gallon hopper that can be set up for dry compounds, including seeds, granular material and sulfur. Though Cessnas lack the speed, power and capacities of other Ag aircraft, they are relatively cheap to operate and make good starter aircraft for those just entering the industry.

The 55-foot-- wingspan DW-1 Eagle biplane (designed by Dean Wilson) is rare, but with that span, it's impressive (one of the best-looking Ag planes). Eagle Aircraft Co. produced a total of about 100-all with either radial or a sixcylinder engine. Precissi Flying Service currently operates three that came with 250-gallon hoppers. Because of its large wingspan, the Eagle has one of the widest, most uniform swath widths.

The Grumman-designed G-164 Ag Cat was built under contract by Schweitzer. Variants include the A, B, B+, Super B, Turbine B, C, King Cat and D models; the turbine-powered aircraft are sometimes dubbed "Turbo Cats." Over the years, their hopper sizes have ranged from 200 to 600 gallons. The Ag Cat name matches other Grumman aircraft with "Cat" names-Wildcat, Hellcat, Bearcat, etc.

Schweitzer eventually took full ownership of the Ag Cat and built the last of approximately 3,000 in 1993. Ag Cats have an industry reputation for being one of the most durable Ag aircraft because they were designed to operate from rough fields and to land on dirt strips. Depending on the model, the Ag Cat's working speed ranges from 100 to 122mph.

Designed by Leland Snow and originally manufactured by Rockwell, the Thrush was most recently marketed by the Ayres Corp. It can have a radial or a turbine engine. The S-2R model with the larger Wright 1820 radial engine is called the "Bull Thrush"; its working speed range is between 105 and 140mph; hopper sizes are 400-, 510-, 600-, and 660-gallon; more than 2,000 have been built.

# posted by Medical Information : 5:06 AM