The Tricked-Out Cropduster the US Military Can’t Get Enough Of (The AT-802 Skywarden) 

Surfshark VPN at Surfshark.deals/mega - Enter promo code MEGA for 83% off and 3 extra months for free! Thank you for your sponsorship!

Another huge benefit of the aircraft's range is the ability to "loiter" over the battlefield for really extended times, which of course is probably much appreciated by the operators on the ground.

I just love how a Propeller-based Aircraft still has a place on the modern battlefield.

I had an Air Tractor working on my rural property just a few days ago, it's speed an maneuverability were impressive as hell. I can see how they would be great for close support.

I live on kangaroo island in South Australia. During our massive bushfire that burnt over half the islands scrub and pasture roughly 2 years ago , I worked at a bush strip refueling and refilling air tractors with fire retardant foam. they are truly awsome and can land on shitty ground and paddocks . big shout out that the island has regrown and is once again the best tourist destination in Australia. Another quick shout out to Pat"poison pat" Crowther , one of K I 's best air tractor pilots.

Friends in the program and SF have renamed it from Air Tractor Sky Warden to: “War Tractor” I fly the AT-802 “Fire Boss” scooping waterbomber. The plane is a Beast, most challenging and most rewarding plane I have ever flown.

As a farmer, I LOVE these! Btw, an important note is that vast majority of farmers themselves aren't buying these. They are bought by a company that just does aircraft spraying, and are contracted by the farmer or a co-op.

The Skywarden is like a cowboy with a Henry repeater and two Colt Armys fighting in Vietnam. But be damned, he's the hardest to kill and the best at what he does.

Official designation by the USAF is OA-1K Sky Warden. The designation of AT-802U is a company designation used by Air Tractor. Although, I'm going to start calling them what I've read the pilots are calling it: "War Tractor".

09:15 That is not an A-10. That is an A-1 Skyraider. The badass CAS piston driven plane from the Vietnam war that shot down at least 2 MiG-17s.

“It’s a cropduster…with F*CKING MISSILES!” Well done on that line delivery, Simon! 😂😂😂 Edit: Wow I NEVER expected this to blow up like it did. Thanks, friends!

I was working at L3 when the contract was announced we were shocked that the plane had such a small airframe and such an insane underwing payload.

As a farmer, I can completely agree with this 😂 Air Tractor, it's legit in the name, they are flying tanks. I'm good friends with some of our AG pilots, on one we actually painted the P-40 style shark mouth on the fuselage and we found a reproduction AA style gun sight that we bolted right behind the pressure gauge also on the nose, for a while after every field he sprayed he had some stencils made up that had a green square (fields) with an X through it, but after a while the space under his cockpit was getting pretty full. The owner of said plane is around my age and is also a huge warbird fan like myself(if you can't tell 😂). Same guy also owns a Bush Plane style Piper Cub that is painted like an old school Vietnam/WWll Grasshopper. Any of the pilots from our local airstrip pretty much know me and love to buzz the farm when they are headed back to the airstrip. Especially our "Crop Dive Bomber"

Great video, but the aircraft at 9:16 is a A-1 Sky Raider and not an A-10!

My dad just retired from Air Tractor. Their entire line of planes is impressive and Mr. Snow was always such a nice guy.

I think this absolutely makes sense. It's simple, effective, and functional. Sometimes, innovation means synthesis rather than invention.

That GAU-19 is a serious weapons system. During my first deployment to OIF with the 82nd 1st/504th one of the UH60’s that was providing cover while we extracted via an adjacent Blackhawk laid down so much hate and discontent that I couldn’t conceive how any soft target could still contain any form of life afterwards.

I've met a few professional Crop Duster Pilots. I've seen up close (even onboard) what an Air Tractor can do. THEY ARE INSANE!!! Their payload (and wing load) are INSANE!!! Their massive control surfaces and RIDICULOUS engines allow them to fly in ways very few aircraft can. Just add soft armor, and reinforced hardpoints, and BOOM, you've got yourself a scary piece of hardware.

This thing is an absolute beast. People go "haha it's just a prop plane XD" but people forget that you don't need supersonic top speed and ultra advanced stealth to drop things that go boom Plus it's fuel-efficient by comparison - air support that isn't a gas guzzler, what's the downside?

Looks like Dusty from the movie Planes ended up joining the military after all!

I've always loved the idea of these and the super tucanos supplementing our higher level air assets. Low maintenance cost, lower footprint, and long loiter time on target. Plenty of pros to go to the go against the few (but significant cons)

there is a reason it's called the Air-Tractor. because like its earth-bound counterpart the Toyota Hilux truck, only a lack of imagination limits what one can do with it.

My distant cousin was the CFO at Air Tractor (now president of international sales) when we went down for my dad's cousin's funeral (and his uncle's) about a decade ago. Being an airline pilot, I wanted the Executive Tour of the production facilities in Olney, Texas. It was all quite impressive, seeing wing spars 3' thick and other minor details. The grand finale was when we went around the corner and saw this sucker sitting there, looking like a P-51 Mustang but with massive PT-6 exhaust stacks. Titanium bathtub like the A-10 Warthog, and Hard Points. It was destined for the Columbian DEA, which intended on using it on illegal Coca crops, and the farmers had the nasty habit of shooting at the cropdusters smiting their means of existence. This thing could return fire and protect the pilot at the same time. Never did forget that moment - I had no idea such things were a reality.

The plane pictured at 9:15 is actually a Douglas A-1D Skyraider not an A-10 Warthog.

In 1977, just discharged from the Australian Army, I began my MBA to retrain for a new career. Ten years prior had included a tour of Soth Vietnam, a pilots license and much work in the Airborne and Aviation areas of the military. At one time, my clas were on assignment to answer a question on Piper Aircraft, the case study being from the mid Sixties when Piper had cash flow problem. Quick cash had to be found from the existing model range. Knowing the value of small, ligbt fixed wing aircraft in counter insurgency, slow, low and high payloads were desirable qualities in the market of that time, with memories of trialing rocket rails on Army Cessna 180s as inspiration. My answer nominated the Piper Pawnee crop duster for this COIN role. The Air Warden and the Pawnee could almkst bectwin brotbers, although separated by flur decades. The lecturer was effusive in his praise for my out of box thinking, to my embarassment in front of surly classmates. How little did I realise I was decades ahead of the world.😂

I painted crop dusters for beer money when I was younger, and I was always impressed with the steel blades they attached to the cockpit windscreen, and leading edges of the wings. They put them there to cut the power lines they might accidentally hit spraying crops.. Crop dusters are like flying knives.

I love this beast, partially because as the RU-vidr "The Fat Electrician" put it (not an exact quote here but the same message): "imagine you are an insurgent and the last thing you see is an up-armored and armed crop-duster, that is one of the funniest and in the eyes of some humiliating things to be killed by if you have to tell your buddies in whatever afterlife you believe in"

Can you imagine the level of disrespect to get killed by a flying tractor? Imagine being in the afterlife, all your dead buddies saying, "Hey, did you hear that Groot over here got killed by the Wright Brothers?"

My Uncle, cousin and his son have flown Air Tractor aircraft in aerial chemical application. These planes are awesome! The turboprop engine made them quieter and later propeller tech made them whisper quiet in level flight. We live on a farm in the Lano Estacado area of Texas and they fly in this area every day. My wife and I love photographing them especially the underside “belly of the beast!” This year, in May, I photographed the first 802 I’ve ever seen in person. Absolutely Awesome!!! So quiet the loudest sound is air rushing over exposed surfaces, except during maneuvers. I can see why they are so popular with various militaries. And a big thank you to Air Tractor for using modern tech to hush aerial applicator aircraft. Thanks for the video!

This plane is kinda like turning 'plowshares into swords'.

Those air tractors are wild. They’ve been buzzing my house recently, and it sounds like a wwii bombing run every time. And they’re pretty powerful

The really amazing thing is that the military is essentially buying a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) product and adding to it only what is needed for a particular mission. That is completely sensible, and therefore Completely UNHEARD OF in my previous US military and Govenrment experience! It's about d***ed time!!! Thank you for this one!

Also affectionately called “war tractor“ or “ yellow jacket “. At one time back in the late 70s they also came to Cessna on their 188 Ag wagon/husky looking for a alternative, but at that time, there just wasn’t many turboprops in the ag industry, except for some old AG cats that have been converted. When Leland met with, I do believe Israel first they were wanting it to be changed to tricycle landing gear, he refused to entertain the idea, saying if you want to get in true back country airstrips, it needs to be tail wheel.

1:15 humble origins 4:14 end of sponsorship 6:04 the crop duster from hell 10:47 AT-802: special operator

As Scotty said in Star Trek, the more comlicated you make the plumbing , the easier it is to stop up the drain! If it is a low threat environment something simple, durable, capable of heavy lift / short take off & landing, maneuverable but steady at low speed with good loiter time and doesn't require 15 - 25 hours of maintenance per flight hour makes a lot of sense

As you said, it is unlikely, but imagine the absolute level of disrespect in getting shot down by a crop duster. they sky warden is essentially a moped with a mk19 automatic grenade launcher strapped to it, and I love it

One of the reasons the OV-10 Bronco was brought out of retirement for CAS missions in the Middle East. Prop aircraft are a great platform for CAS missions.

If Disney ever gets their 💩 together, they need to make a "Planes 3", where Dusty Crophopper gets another upgrade, and then fights the Mexican Cartels. 😂

If you've ever seen an Air Tractor or any other type of crop duster pop up over a tree line or phone lines and then dive down to within a few feet of a farm field at high speed, you can easily imagine it coming to your rescue with a strafing run of machine gun or rocket fire.

My grandfather lived with Leland’s family when he was a boy. My papaw was a tail gunner in ww2 flying out of England. When he returned to the states he was sent to south Texas. There was a housing shortage and locals wd let out rooms. My papaw lived with the Snows. Leland thought my papaw walked on water because he was in the air corps. In the early 90s Leland tracked him down to let him know what a huge influence my papaw had on his life. He ended up passing before my papaw did. When I told him, it’s the only time that I ever saw him cry. RIP Leland Snow and Ollie Bowling

Never have I gotten so much hype from a crop duster. It's a wonderful aircraft. It's as wonderful as it is deadly.

Having lived on the family farm for almost my entire life, we've hired crop dusters flying this bad boy. It's maneuverability is amazing.

We've got a fleet of these based around the south west of Western Australia, and graduate pilots often get jobs into these firebombers after flying scouting missions. Awesome aircraft.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched 4 or 5 of these fighting wildfires on the island of Ciovo in Croatia. They were accompanied by a larger Canadair . It was fascinating, and they were able to put the fire out by the next day.

In 1969 when I was stationed at NAS Albany George. Thrush Aircraft located at the municipal airport on the other side of town was producing a piston engine crop duster very similar to this aircraft. So the basic design did not come about in 1989. Thrush Aircraft is now producing a turboprop version 510P that looks very similar to the Air tractor AT802 and could be adapted in the same way. The biggest appearance difference is the number of blades on the propeller, the see through liquid tank and stronger under carriage. I don't know who came up with the basic design but it has been around a long time.

You know, I have one simple request and that is to have a crop duster with frickin’ laser bombs attached to its wings.

I have to say is the Skywarden is actually badass looking all kitted out.

You forgot to mention a veeery important point of it: the same plant that builds the civilian version can provide for the military version in case of need unlike a f-16/ f-18 etc... And im not sure but in emergency there could be the possibility to convert civilian ones into the military version (i remember something about dual use projects from WWII where the oil tankers had a structure planed to be adaptable and converted into Aircraft carriers)

I met Leland Snow in Denton, TX in the very early 1990s and was very impressed with his vision and his product.

The perhaps lesser known Grumman AgCat was from a long and storied line of great fighter planes. The lineage from the Hellcat, Wildcat and Bearcat is rather obvious. The Grumman motto: “Make it strong, make it simple and make it work” Badass plane !

A great idea, since military airplanes are notoriously difficult and expensive to maintain. A small insurgent group just couldn't keep a plane like the A-10 operational. And the low speed can be a big advantage when shooting at ground targets. It even makes unguided weapons, which tend to be lighter and cheaper, viable as there is enough time to aim properly

I can imagine a simple folding wing design making it aircraft carrier/navy possible. And as a sub hunter or medium range ship hunter, able to fly below radar and nimble as hell, it might be a great compliment to a carrier task force? I can imagine 10 of them buzzing Iranian gun boats and daring them to "make my day".

Ag airplanes are like a cross between an aerobatic aircraft and a heavy pickup truck. Amazing maneuverability, and carrying capacity.

First the Killdozer... and now the Deathduster ❤

It kind of reminds me of the Cessna O-2 that was used in the Vietnam War and was essentially just a modified civilian Cessna 337 Skymaster that had rockets mounted under the wings. Its role was as a forward observation aircraft to help direct airstrikes, and the rockets were there to simply mark targets for the nearby attack aircraft. However, there are some accounts of them being used offensively where the rockets were aimed at enemy troop formations to take them out.

This plane is a good addition to our military operations. However, agricultural equipment has been used my militaries all over the world throughout history.

Interesting to note that it didn't come from Raytheon, Boeing or one of the majors in the MIC...consequently its humble, cheap, easy, versatile, and effective instead of grandiose, expensive, difficult, limited and under performs

Remember seeing all those Toyota pickups with machine guns and anti aircraft guns mounted in their boxes? Yea, now imagine that flying. I have seen the sky tractors spraying fields in Minnesota and North Dakota for years now. They are amazing to watch.

I'm glad this thing is getting attention. It's so awesome.

Had one of these crop duster models fly right over my rural home yesterday dusting the fields. Very impressive to watch the pilot maneuver it

You mentioned that military pilots don't have experience in prop planes. I present to you that all of them (Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force) currently are trained in the T6 Texan II, which is a turboprop tandem aerobatic trainer utilizing the same PT-6 engine and prop as most common Air Tractors. Granted, it's not a tail-dragger, but the Air Tractor is actually very forgiving in it's ground handling, take-off, and landing behavior. It won't take long for even a nugget Naval Aviator to transition to an Air Tractor attack aircraft.

I grew up working for an aerial spraying company working around these machines and their talented pilots. One of my jobs was to spot for obstructions… towers, guy-lives supporting towers, power lines. At 120mph they would typically fly UNDER the power lines. They would regularly land with corn tassels on the landing gear! This is a great concept. You could have a forward support team out in the field that could re-fuel/re-arm them off of improvised strips. A cleared section of any road or a relatively flat farm/pasture field would work.

AFSOC is going to love these little birds, and believe me, they will come up with a lot of very creative ways to employ it in the field. This "Mini A-10" will be a hit, no doubt.

I just can't imagine getting called out for a mission and you show up and they're like yeah we got a mission deep into enemy lines....

My dad passed away 6 years ago, today (coincidence). I didn't even realize it was today. But, I sure wish he was here to see this happening. He was a crop duster for 40 years. I think ag pilots are some of, if not the best pilots in the world. They are taylor made for this job. Too bad it didn't happen sooner.

It reminds me of the lynx double fuselage plane used by Rhodesian air force. In a counter insurgency war, you don't need a fast jet. You need a slow plane that can seek the enemy, drop bombs, use machine guns etc. The lynx was incredibly effective. I saw it action myself from a ringside seat., where a insurgent group of 15 was attacked by the lynx and a DC 3 plane with parachutists. Only one guerilla escaped. here are the specs of the plane. The Lynx or Orlynx was a twin-fuselage light attack aircraft used by the Rhodesian Air Force during the Rhodesian Bush War. It was a modified version of the Reims Cessna FTB337G, which was a civilian aircraft. The Rhodesian Air Force modified the FTB337G by adding armor, a second cockpit, and a variety of weapons, including machine guns, rockets, and bombs. The Lynx or Orlynx was used for a variety of missions, including ground attack, reconnaissance, and light transport. It was a versatile aircraft that was well-suited for the conditions of the Rhodesian Bush War. The name "Lynx" was given to the aircraft by the Rhodesian Air Force, while the name "Orlynx" was used by the manufacturer, Reims Aviation. The aircraft was also known as the "Push-Pull" because of its twin-fuselage design. The Lynx or Orlynx was a successful aircraft in the Rhodesian Bush War. It was used to great effect by the Rhodesian Air Force, and it played a significant role in the war. Here are some of the specifications of the Lynx or Orlynx: Engine: 2 × Continental O-300A piston engines Maximum speed: 200 knots (370 km/h) Range: 600 miles (970 km) Service ceiling: 18,000 feet (5,500 m) Armament: 2 × .303 Browning machine guns, 2 × 37 mm SNEB rocket pods, 2 × 500 lb (230 kg) bombs The Lynx or Orlynx was retired from service by the Rhodesian Air Force in 1980. However, it remains a popular aircraft among warbird enthusiasts.

My Dad used to fly the older version to spray crops. These planes are fucking impressive. All the power you could ask for. They had an older AgWagon with a radial you could hear that thing everywhere it was so loud! I absolutely LOVED hearing that thing. One of guys that he worked with had a catastrophic failure of one of the engine cylinders. Damn thing kept running long enough to get it on the ground! The other one was newer with a turbo prop powerplant. Thank you Simon! Brought back some wonderful memories!

This thing feels like the AH-6 little bird of the fixed wing world you don’t get the OOMPH of a real full size aircraft but it’s the scalpel to the comparative broadsword that is a full size attacker. For what it’s intended to do (high precision long duration operations against opponents with limited or no anti air capabilities) it seems to be by far the best possible solution while also costing quite literally less than 1/20 of the price of the next cheapest solution.

I used to get towed in my glider from one of these. Without the weight of the crop stuff it really hauled gliders easily. Ours was a pawnee

I grew up near Richvale CA, out in the rice patties. These planes are often your closest neighbors out there. I loved watching them fly. I can totally confirm how robust they are. I saw one hit some power lines and crash once. I knew the pilot, he was fine and that plane was back to work in two days. Sky Tractors is what we call all of them there.

Now that's a huge set of nuts, my grandfather flew Swordfish in WW2 & the general public put them down as not being real war aircraft, but they could make the captain of the largest ship crap his pants & run like hell, it's a hare & tortoise thing.

Farmers don’t buy crop dusters. Crop dusting is a service farmers hire to destribute chemicals and fertilizer on their crop fields usually when the crops are too big to use a tractor because it would damage the crops. It’s also a way to protect the crops from pest quickly before they become a problem.

I really don’t know why, but I absolutely love this plane and I want one

I saw a video on Super Tocanos a few years ago & wondered why the US didn't have anything similar in inventory, it made too much sense. for the price, the AT-802 should be on every airbase, and fitted with folding wings for carrier use. we should still have the faster/stealth tech the F-15, F35, drones, and all the others... but this fills a very different roll needing much less support, and can be deployed almost anywhere. maybe for training send the pilots to go do cropdusting & firefighting and field repairs.

It makes a lot of sense to purpose the Air Tractor this way. It reminds me of the Caribou, not that pretty but it can do stuff nothing else can do. I see this platform as offering a lot of value to a war fighting effort. You get to achieve things with it that other planes can't do and it does them cheaply and from almost any place at all. It would give the enemy a real headache by just popping up where you didn't want it to be.

Jet Weaboos: Prop planes are useless in modern-day combat! Cropduster: LOL, hold my beer!

The pilots for the crop dusting version are amazing around were i live, its like an air show when they are out flying.

Terrific video of the Sky Warden. I like how you covered its civilian roots to contrast with its later military adoption. For a design to transition from civilian to military design so smoothly just shows how good a design it was even from the beginning.

Lol, it feels like they’ve basically made the flying equivalent to a jeep; rugged, durable, able to carry a heavy load, and able to operate in virtually any environment.

We have these bad boys in my area of the Texas panhandle. I see them a lot everywhere, so they are quite a popular plane for crop dusting.

I sat right seat in an OA-37 during the Panama invasion with a young Lieutenant, and we were tasked with identifying a "potential hostile aircraft on a hill top." We got there and the Looie was stumped. There was one plane, and two tanks for liquids on stilts (high enough to drain by gravity into the plane). I was laughing so hard the Looie got mad, and I told him - "That's an AG Cat." (one tank was for gas, the other for whatever he was spraying). Someone thought it was a leftover WW II fighter and sent him to ID it...

Ive witnessed an at802 firefighting aircraft when a wildfire threatened the small town i live in, they are ridiculously nimble planes when you consider the payload.

Dusty Cropphopper went and joined the Air Force

I trained on this plane!! The crop duster version of course, but i can tell you, she can haul serious weight, burns little fuel, and banks like no other aircraft I've flown!!! She'd be great at close air support .

We had a Call-Air crop dusting plane at our 1954 Agathon event at Utah State. Larry Call, son of the owner was in our A&P class. The plane could carry its own weight which was 1640 pounds if memory serves. The planes were built in Afton Wyoming. Iguana

Such in iconic civilian plane. I had no idea the military was putting it to use too! Quite the new lease on life. Impressive.

The Crop Duster was invented by Sir Joseph Bejelkie-Petersen in Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia just after WW11. Back in the Day, 1970'''s. There was a crazy Agtruck Pilot in the Burdekin, (Ayr/Home Hill) Queensland, Australia that flew under & through the Burdekin Bridge. One day Some people were watching him spraying the Cane Fields in Home Hill when he hit Power lines & crashed. Not long after the Fire Brigade, Ambulance & Police turned up & a lot of other people. Meanwhile the Pilot had walked across the field & went & had a beer at the local Pub. When asked about the kerfuffle across the road he just replied that they are probably looking for me. True story.

I got a ride in the back of one in the Mississippi Delta. They made it clear, they’re not crop dusters, they’re aerial applicators. It was a demilitarized model, over a ton of armor removed, panels with bullets holes were replaced.

Seems possible that this plane’s simplicity to operate would enable the spec ops people to whom this will be assigned to have a new type of soldier who could serve as a pilot and as a ground trooper.

9:14 - A10 Warthog. He's done it again.

Simon didn't mention the biggest advantage over jet aircraft for counter insurgency close air support - much lower fuel usage. In Iraq and Afghanistan a large percentage of US and allied causalities were from attacks on fuel convoys.

wonderful plane, my friend flew them (he now has an aviation helmet company, airborne tactical solutions), but the on itch i have with this video is IT’S CALLED THE AT-802 ARCHANGEL

I used to work loading areal applicators, I loved it! I got a chance to go to the air tractor factory in Olney Tx. I got to fly in a brand new 2 seater AT-504 it was awesome!

The South African Defence Force used to deploy "Bosbok" reconnaissance planes, little more than a canvas and aluminium twin seater with a really slow ground speed, but so tiny that it made a difficult target for ground fire. The rumour was the only reason it stayed in the air was that the plane was afraid of the ground.

Great aircraft! It's "mission set" - light-to-medium attack, close air support and recon - reminds me of the Vietnam-era OV-10 Bronco which was also an awesome aircraft. A slow aircraft is very much what you want for close air support and light attack missions. The flexibility of the load-out for this aircraft is amazing, as is the number of hardpoints it has! If Ukraine had a mix of A-10s, these and a few Broncos they could absolutely *annihilate* the Russian front lines.

9:16 NOT the A-10 Warthog, but an A-1 Skyraider. This is why post-production exists to catch mistakes.

I've seen an Air Tractor pull down about a 1/4 mile of telephone lines. 😂 got a little to close and hung a sprayer on the cable. It made a rough landing in the middle of the soy bean field... still pulling the cable off the poles!

And, certainly, they could be converted to drone style operation in the future as well or be the basis of one. It's a lot like the development of RAID in the computer industry. It was discovered that multiple, cheap PC-class hard drives could be combined in an array of redundant drives (an anagram of the acronym) to be cheaper, faster and more reliable than mainframe and minicomputer storage. In both the plane and the disk drives, it's good to not assume that the most expensive, high-tech solution is the best for all scenarios.

Having an army of toyotas and cropdusters will put the fear of God in the top militaries, lol.

This sort of thing is right up my alley, I too was a tinkerer (my occupation was repairing all kinds of automated industrial/commercial machinery). In WW2 a AAF soldier by the name of Paul "Pappy" Gunn, a tinkerer himself took a B-25 medium bomber, took everything out not needed, including people, rigged up a rack that held 8- .50 cal. (Ma Deuce), through the nose, 2- .50 cals in blisters on each side of the cockpit, plus the Dorsal Ball Turret, had 14 Forward firing .50 cal machine guns along with Bristol Beaufighters with their 4- 20 mm Cannons, Merchant Shipping was the recipient of dozens of these aircraft, the Japanese didn't stand a chance.