Everything about Cropduster totally explained
Aerial application, commonly called
crop dusting, involves spraying crops with
fertilizers,
pesticides, and
fungicides from an
agricultural aircraft. The specific spreading of fertilizer is also known as
aerial topdressing.
Agricultural aircraft are often purpose-built, though many have been converted from existing
airframes.
Helicopters are sometimes used, and some aircraft serve double duty as
water bombers in areas prone to
wildfires.
History
Aerial Seed Sowing 1906
The first known aerial application of agricultural materials was by John Chaytor, who in 1906 spread seed over a swamped valley floor in
Wairoa,
New Zealand, using a
hot air balloon with mobile tethers. Aerial sowing of seed has continued on a small scale.
Crop dusting 1921
The first known use of a heavier-than-air machine occurred on 3 August 1921 when as the result of advocacy by Dr B.R. Coad, a
United States Army Air Service Curtiss JN4 Jenny piloted by John MacReady was used to spread
lead arsenate to kill
catalpa sphinx caterpillars near Troy,
Ohio in the
United States. The first commercial operations were attempted in 1924, by Continental Dusters which subsequently became part of
Delta Air Lines. Use of
insecticide and
fungicide for
crop dusting slowly spread in the Americas and to a lesser extent other nations in the
1930s and
1940s.
Top dressing 1939-1946
Aerial topdressing, the spread of fertilisers such as
superphosphate, was developed in
New Zealand in the
1940s by members of the Ministry of Public Works and
RNZAF, led by
Alan Pritchard and Doug Campbell - unofficial experiments by individuals within the government led to funded research. Initially fertilizer and seed were dropped together (1939), using a window mounted chute on a
Miles Whitney Straight, but by the end of the
1940s different mixtures of fertilizer were being distributed from hoppers installed in war surplus
Grumman Avengers and
C-47 Dakotas, as well as some privately operated
de Havilland Tiger Moths in New Zealand, and the practise was being adopted experimentally in
Australia and the
United Kingdom.
Crop dusting poisons enjoyed a boom after
World War II until the environmental impact of widespread use became clear, particularly after the publishing of
Rachel Carson's
Silent Spring.
Water bombing 1952
Aerial firefighting, or water bombing, was tested experimentally by Art Seller's Skyways air services in
Canada in 1952 (dropping a mix of water, fertilizer and seed), and established in
California in the mid
1950s.
Night aerial application 1973-present
Crop dusting at night is mostly liquid spray and is conducted in the Southwest US
deserts. The rising cost of pesticides and increasing immunity built up by continuous spraying reduced the effectiveness of spraying in daytime. In high temperature areas, the insects would travel down in plants in daytime and return to the top at night. The aircraft (both fixed wing and helicopter) were equipped with lights, usually three sets: work lights were high power and aimed or adjustable from the cockpit; wire lights were angled down for taxi and wire or obstruction illumination; and turn lights which only were turned on in the direction of the turn to allow safe operation on moonless nights where angle of entry or exit needed to be illuminated. These aircraft were equipped with pumps, booms, and nozzles for spray application. Some aircraft were equipped with an elongated metal wing called a spreader, with channels built in to direct the flow of dust such as sulplhur, used on melons as a pesticide and soil amendment. Very little pesticide dust was used day or night in comparison to spray because of the difficulty in drift control. Workers on the ground called "flaggers" would use flashlights aimed at the aircraft to mark the swaths on the ground, later GPS units replaced the flaggers because of new laws regarding using human flaggers on some pesticides.
According to the US
Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2005 US cropduster pilots earned an average annual wage of $63,210.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Cropduster'.
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