Preserving History

NAAA INSIGHTS

National Agricultural Aviation Association

Submit your aerial application photos and videos to mark the industry’s 100th anniversary

The 100th anniversary of aerial application is around the corner, and NAAA is looking for your participation. Do you have great photos, videos or memories of aerial application that you’d like to share? For nearly a century, aerial application has played an important part of the aviation and agriculture industries. Now, NAAA invites you to share your favorite memories and photos for a chance to be featured in its 100th anniversary celebration materials, which will debut in 2021.

In 1921, in an experiment in Ohio, an airplane was used to spread lead arsenate dust over catalpa trees to kill sphinx moth larvae. Under the direction of the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Lt. John A. Macready, a U.S. Army pilot, made the first aerial application with a modified Curtiss JN-6 “Super Jenny.” The government then utilized aerial application in the Southern states. In 1922, Curtiss biplanes were used to dust cotton fields near Tallulah, Louisiana, to control boll weevils. In 1923, Huff-Daland Dusters Inc.—the forerunner of Delta Air Lines—did the first commercial dusting of crops with its own specially built aircraft. Today, approximately 3,400 professional aerial application operators and pilots operate in the United States, and the agricultural aviation industry treats 127 million acres of cropland aerially each year. Aerial application accounts for 28% of the delivery of crop protection products in American agriculture.

Readers may submit entries by emailing information@agaviation.org. Select photos may be featured in video, print, online and social media to celebrate this 100-year milestone. Aerial application has been the livelihood of readers like you and your forerunners for almost a century, and the industry has made a positive impact in your life, so we want to hear your stories. Photos, stories and cherished memories are encouraged.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

To submit photos, email the following information to information@agaviation.org. NAAA requests that ALL submissions be sent electronically via email. Please DO NOT send links to websites. Only submissions with the required information will be considered.

1. Complete contact information (name, address, telephone/cell numbers, email address)

2. Submit photos using the preferred format if possible: • Image Resolution: 300 DPI (dots per inch)

• Preferred Image Size: 1080 x 720

• Preferred File Format: JPEG

• Photo Information: Each photo should include a complete descriptive caption that coincides with the photo’s filename (e.g., SprayingCorn1978).

3. Brief caption/description of the image. Photos must be accompanied by a caption with information such as the year or approximate year the photo was taken, who or what is in the photo, where the photo was taken, what’s happening in the photo and photo credit. Example: John Doe defoliating cotton in Levelland, Texas, in 1978. Photo taken by Jane Doe.

4. Submit stories and memories using email, a Microsoft Word document or PDF.

After your submission is sent: Please note that some submissions may not be featured, but the association will do its best to honor submitted memories.

If you do not wish to have your submission added to NAAA’s image database to be used in other NAAA marketing materials such as brochures, social media posts or on the NAAA website, please specify that when you submit your photo. NAAA does not compensate for photos.