Leland Snow, Air Tractor Founder, Dies at 80

Stephen Pope

Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 02:00 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

Leland Snow, inventor of the aerial spray airplane and founder of Air Tractor, passed away at 80, having pioneered the agricultural aviation industry.
He designed his first aerial spray plane in 1951 and continued to innovate, developing various models, including the AT-802, which became the world's largest ag plane.
Snow's companies, Snow Aeronautical and later Air Tractor, significantly advanced agricultural aviation globally, with Air Tractor's ownership eventually transferred to its employees.
An avid runner, Snow also demonstrated a commitment to employee well-being by instituting free health screenings at Air Tractor.

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The man who invented the aerial spray airplane — and in doing so gave birth to the agricultural aviation industry — has passed. Leland Snow, founder and president of Air Tractor, died on Sunday while jogging near his home in Wichita Falls, Texas. He was 80.

Snow designed his first aerial spray airplane, the S-1, in 1951 when he was 21 years old. That airplane remained in production until 1957, after which Snow introduced the S-2A and S-2B models and built a factory in Olney, Texas, which opened in 1958. Snow sold his company, Snow Aeronautical, to Rockwell-Standard in 1965 and was appointed vice president of Rockwell’s Aero Commander division.