Everything about Agricultural Aircraft totally explained
An
agricultural aircraft is an
aircraft that has been built or converted for
agricultural use - usually
aerial application of
pesticides (
crop dusting) or
fertiliser (
aerial topdressing); in these roles they're referred to as "crop dusters" or "top dressers". Agricultural aircraft are also used for
hydroseeding.
The most common agricultural aircraft are
fixed-wing, such as the
Air Tractor,
Grumman Ag Cat,
PAC Fletcher, or
Rockwell Thrush Commander, but
helicopters are also used.
Crop dusting with insecticides began in the 1920s in the United States. The first widely used agricultural aircraft were converted war-surplus biplanes, such as the
De Havilland Tiger Moth and
Stearman. After more effective
insecticides and
fungicides were developed in the 1940s, and
aerial topdressing was developed by government research in
New Zealand, purpose-built agricultural fixed-wing aircraft became common.
In the US and Europe they're typically small, simple, and rugged. Many have spraying systems built into their wings, and pumps are usually driven by wind turbines. In places where farms are larger, such as
New Zealand,
Australia, the former
Warsaw pact nations and parts of the developing world, larger and more powerful aircraft have been used, including turboprop powered aircraft such as the
PAC Cresco, twin engined types, such as the
Lockheed Lodestar and varying from the versatile and utilitarian
Antonov An-2 biplane to the bizarre
turbofan powered
biplane, the
WSK-Mielec M-15 Belphegor- all however tend to be of simple rugged
STOL design. In places where dedicated use as an agricultural aircraft is uneconomic, utility types such as the
De Havilland Canada DHC2 Beaver have been used.
In the case of
helicopters, tanks are placed on or outside the body of the aircraft, while a spray rig, extending outward to the sides, is attached well below the main rotor blades. Hydroseeding is often done by helicopters using tanks and drop systems much like those used for
aerial firefighting.
Aerial spraying has been controversial since the 1960s, as a result of environmental concerns about
pesticide drift (raised for example by
Rachel Carson's book
Silent Spring). It is now often subject to restrictions, for example spraying pesticide is generally banned in Sweden, although exceptions can be made such as for an area plagued by mosquitos during summer. Even the spread of fertilizer has raised concerns, for example in New Zealand fertilizer entering streams has been found to disproportionately promoted growth of species more able to exploit the increased nutrients, so leading to restrictions on topdressing near waterways. Even putting out forest fires has been criticized in the U.S.A. as preventing natural consumption of flammable material, and increasing long term risk.
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