UNITED STATES
NAAHOF INDUCTEE SPOTLIGHT
National Agricultural Aviation Museum’s Hall of Fame
Conrad Barlow — Mr. Transland Conrad Barlow Harbor City, California Inducted — 2000
Conrad Barlow has always been an active participant in the ag aviation industry, not only as a supplier and designer that responds to the industry’s needs, but as a dedicated individual who has served the industry relentlessly.
B 12 | agairupdate.com
An icon in the aviation industry, there’s probably not another company that better reflects the growth and resolute of ag aviation than Transland, Inc. And, no less to the credit of the success of Transland and mentor of that company than the man known worldwide as Conrad Barlow, Mr. Transland. Born in England in September 1920, Conrad Barlow served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as an Aircraftsman, Second Class (AC2). This was the beginnings in his youth, that lay the foreground for the innovative designs of aerial application dispersal equipment, with his modification to the seat of an F4U for an intelligence officer to accompany the pilot. After the war, Conrad’s fledgling career placed him in New York working in export sales with Smith-Kirkpatrick, a surplus aircraft and Franklin engine supplier. During this tenure, Conrad met George Wing, owner of High Shear Rivet Tool Company, inventor of the High Shear aircraft rivet. Wing, wanting to expand the use of his rivet, decided to make aluminum truck bodies, thus the name Transland. This venture didn’t work, prompting Transland to design and build aluminum hoppers and spreaders for N3N aircraft and become Transland Aircraft. While in the ag aircraft hopper business, Wing became interested in designing a new ag aircraft. He bought the rights to the Ag-1 from Texas A&M and from that design built three Ag-2s. He also began building aircraft dispersal equipment to compliment his hopper building business. From this, Wing needed to develop foreign markets for his Ag-2 and dispersal equipment, here is where Conrad Barlow enters the picture as salesperson for Transland Aircraft. Conrad’s key duty at this time (December 1958) was to develop a market for the Ag-2. The aircraft
was large, powered by a P&W R-985, 450 hp. Later a conversion was developed for the P&W R-1340, 600 hp. Transland Aircraft exhibited the Ag-2 at several trade shows in its marketing attempts. One of the aircraft was lost on a return flight from the World Congress of Aviation in Las Vegas, Nevada. After this, Transland Aircraft decided to abandon the Ag-2 project focusing more on the development and marketing of ag aircraft dispersal equipment. The name synonymous with Transland is Swathmaster; developed by Joe Sellers in the late 1950s, a dual purpose applicator for both dry and wet material, still in use to this day. After the demise of the Ag-2, Conrad hit the road selling the Swathmaster for $1,500, demonstrating it with a movie film of a Stearman dusting. In 1960 Conrad met Leland Snow at a Texas ag pilot convention, where he negotiated a deal to build the gate boxes for Snow Aeronautical. That alliance still stands to this day. However, gate boxes are now built for all U.S. ag aircraft, along with the Transland Firebombing gate, specially designed to answer the needs of today’s fire bomber ag aircraft. This gate box was the first to allow the ag operator to incorporate both firebombing work and normal applications without a change to the system. Also, from Conrad’s earlier work with gate boxes, Transland offered the first emergency dump system, saving untold lives in the ag aviation industry, worldwide. This gate box became so
