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.
