UNITED STATES
NAAA INSIGHTS
National Agricultural Aviation Association
Preserving History Submit your aerial application photos and videos to mark the industry’s 100th anniversary
Historical crop dusting photos (like this one) are indicative of aerial applicators’ enduring presence in agriculture.
B 2 | agairupdate.com
The 100th anniversary of aerial application is around the corner, and NAAA is looking for your participation. Do you have great photos, videos or memories of aerial application that you’d like to share? For nearly a century, aerial application has played an important part of the aviation and agriculture industries. Now, NAAA invites you to share your favorite memories and photos for a chance to be featured in its 100th anniversary celebration materials, which will debut in 2021. In 1921, in an experiment in Ohio, an airplane was used to spread lead arsenate dust over catalpa trees to kill sphinx moth larvae. Under the direction of the Ohio Department of Agriculture,
Lt. John A. Macready, a U.S. Army pilot, made the first aerial application with a modified Curtiss JN-6 “Super Jenny.” The government then utilized aerial application in the Southern states. In 1922, Curtiss biplanes were used to dust cotton fields near Tallulah, Louisiana, to control boll weevils. In 1923, Huff-Daland Dusters Inc.—the forerunner of Delta Air Lines—did the first commercial dusting of crops with its own specially built aircraft. Today, approximately 3,400 professional aerial application operators and pilots operate in the United States, and the agricultural aviation industry treats 127 million acres of cropland aerially each year. Aerial application accounts for 28% of the delivery of crop protection products in American agriculture. Readers may submit entries by emailing ➤
