OLNEY, TX — Air Tractor, Inc. is proud to announce its expansion into the field of unmanned aerial systems. The recent acquisition of Hangar 78 UAV, and its flagship aircraft, the Yield Defender unmanned aerial system (UAS) will create the foundation of Air Tractor’s development and visionary integration of unmanned technology to complement its core agricultural and firefighting aircraft lines.
“We have done our research, and it’s clear that aggressively investing and further developing unmanned aerial systems into agriculture will enable Air Tractor to remain an industry leader and provide the latest technology to ag producers as UAS capabilities mature and are integrated into the industry,” said Jim Hirsch, President of Air Tractor.
In tandem with the purchase, former Hangar 78UAV Managing Partner, Wes Hall has been appointed to Vice President of UAS Technologies to lead integration and further development for Yield Defender.
“We are very passionate about the vision and extremely proud to join the Air Tractor family,” said Wes Hall, VP of UAS Technologies. “This acquisition allows us to widen our engineering expertise, reach global markets, offer cutting edge technology, and expand our customer support solutions.”
Yield Defender offers true turnkey solutions spanning multiple disciplines to provide customers product, service and data processing in the UAS sector. The Yield Defender provides immediate solutions and implementation of a broad spectrum of UAS capabilities to include, but not limited to mapping, analysis, and thermal imaging. Air Tractor’s diversification and expansion of its product line will position the company to take advantage of the emerging UAS market and growth which are predicted to exceed $82US billion by 2025 (AUVSI Economic Report 2013).
Yield Defender is an unmanned aerial system specifically engineered to serve the agriculture industry. The UAS is an impressively designed machine with onboard systems that maximize its capability and value to the industry. Sensors using Near Infrared (NIR), thermal imaging, and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology integrated with CropVue web based flight management provide advanced analysis solutions. Manufacturing, research and development will be headquartered in Olney, Texas.
ABOUT AIR TRACTOR
At its Olney, Texas manufacturing facilities, Air Tractor produces a line of nine aircraft that includes 400, 500, 600 and 800-gallon capacity airplanes powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turbine engines. They are used for agricultural purposes, fire fighting, narcotic crop eradication, fuel hauling, fighting locust plagues, and cleaning up oil spills in coastal waters. From North, South and Central America, to Australia, Indonesia and China to Spain, Italy, Croatia and Africa, Air Tractor aircraft can be found in more than 30 countries around the world and are supported by a global network of Air Tractor dealers.
Comments
For the record, I do not think that Air Tractor has any thought of using the Pixhawk in manned aircraft.
Certainly not in actual control of the aircraft (although I could see the sensor package and some appropriate firmware being useful in various ways.)
My comment simply related to a very FAA and liability savy company being willing to take on a UAV with a Pixhawk.
It is a huge vote of confidence for the Pixhawk and for our development teams efforts.
I don't think the intention is to put the pixhawk on manned aircraft is it? I think they're just planning on using multicopters more in agriculture.
Very interesting development.
If Pixhawk stays the main controller, it is operating in a company making some of the most serious and widely accepted manned "crop dusters" in the world.
I am sure that by our DIY standards this will be outrageously expensive, but for a company also building manned aircraft to have taken on a Pixhawk controlled multi is a major commitment.
The standards required for manned aircraft production (especially crop dusters) are incredibly rigorous and any failing results in HUGE liability.
And Air Tractor is known for building extremely rugged and reliable planes.
I will be interested to see how this proceeds.