4 minute read
Love of Aviation Leaves a Lasting Legacy
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:
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
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
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 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
1953 (age 23): went to Nicaragua for a crop-dusting season in a Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser; made a lot of good connections for the future and continued working on the S-1 design
1954-55 (age 24): demonstrated his S-1 for the Texas Agricultural Aviation Association (TAAA) and flew it in Nicaragua for two crop-dusting seasons.
1955-56 (age 25): began the design and construction of the Snow S-2; completed construction and demonstrated the S-2 at the TAAA conference; took orders and deposits for 20 aircraft
1957 (age 27): Began production of customer aircraft and started FAA certification work on S-2; lost the prototype S-2 during a certification flight test when the wing came off, and he had to bail out of the plane! (That’s when the parachuting experience came in handy!)
1958 (age 28): Moved to Olney, Texas, to establish a permanent home and factory for Snow Aeronautical Company, received financial backing from the local community, and completed FAA Type Certification on the Snow S-2B.
That is the end of this timeline, but just the beginning of Leland Snow’s long career in the design and production of agricultural aircraft. He continued to improve his aircraft and build the larger, safer, more productive planes that our industry required. Air Tractor, the second company he founded, will celebrate 50 years of ag plane production in 2024, and we currently produce more than 200 planes per year that are sold around the world. The message to anyone, whether young or old, is to follow your passion for aviation, even when you face setbacks and hurdles. Aviation is a challenging field, and it has changed a lot since the 1950s when my father started, but his life story bears witness that one person with passion and determination can positively affect an entire industry and leave a legacy of success long after he or she is gone.
