Air Tractor

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 800 US gal (330, 420, 500, and 670 imp gal; 1,500, 1,900, 2,300, and 3,000 L) 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]

• Ayres Corporation
• Thrush Aircraft
• L3Harris OA-1K Sky Warden (Air Tractor-L3Harris AT-802U Sky Warden)