By Kristin Snow Edwards
Love of Aviation 1946 (age 16): bought a 37-horsepower J-2 Cub with two friends
1947 (age 17): bought a wind-damaged
Aeronca Chief and repaired the wings and tail by himself in his garage
74-year old Leland with an Air Tractor AT-402B
You are never too young (or too old!) to love aviation. By the time my father, Leland Snow, was 28 years old, he had accomplished many significant achievements in aviation. On the day he passed away at age 80, he was still working every day in the aviation industry to which he devoted his life. For those who might not have heard of Leland Snow, he was one of the pioneers of agricultural aviation, known to many as “crop dusting.” He was among the first to design and build an aircraft specifically for agricultural use, not merely converting another type of plane for that purpose, as many were doing at the time. His initial designs in the late 1950s to the 1960s were the Snow S-1 and S-2 series, later designated the Thrush. His second design, the Air Tractor, has become the world’s leading agricultural and firefighting aircraft, with more than 4000 sold since 1974. Back to the subject of his youth and aviation milestones, here is a list:
1948 (age 18): went to Texas A&M University where he majored in Aeronautical Engineering and flew the Aeronca Chief to commute home to Harlingen, Texas, on the weekends 1948 (age 18): began doing parachute jumps
“for fun” at a time before skydiving was a sport, and parachutes were mainly for emergency use only. After several jumps and a few “brush with death” situations, he quit this hobby.
1951 (age 21):
received his commercial pilot license and began his ag-flying career with a local operator in his hometown. Back at Leland and Snow S-1 A&M in his Junior year, he began designing and building his first ag plane design, the Snow S-1.
1952 (age 22): graduated from Texas A&M
and continued working on the S-1 while doing ag flying work
1953 (age 23): made the first flight of the
S-1; he wanted to use it for crop-dusting but discovered that he needed to refine the design of certain elements to make it usable for dusting
Early childhood: discovered his love of airplanes and built many model airplanes
1946 (age 16):
soloed in a J-3 Cub and earned his private pilot license
10-year old Leland Snow with a model airplane he built
23-year old Leland (right) ready for first flight of the Snow S-1
42 42
