National Air and Space Museum Archives

Tri-Rotor Spray & Chemical Photography Collection

Summary

Collection ID:
NASM.2004.0023
Creators:
Smith, Larry
Dates:
bulk 1970s-2003
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.18 Cubic feet
(1 slim letter box)
Repository:
This collection consists of 82 scanned photographs and four DVDs relating to Tri-Rotor Spray & Chemical's aircraft and operations.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This collection consists of 82 scanned photographs and four DVDs relating to Tri-Rotor Spray & Chemical's aircraft and operations. The scans of the photographs were produced by the National Air and Space Museum's Archives Division, from originals lent by, and returned to, Mr. Larry Smith. The DVDs were made from four VHS-C format tapes of crop spraying runs also lent, and returned, to Mr. Smith. The following aircraft are represented: Bell UH-1B; Air Tractor AT-400A and AT-602; Hughes 269C; Hiller UH-12E; Ayres Corp. S2R-G6 and 660 (S2R-T660); Piper PA-25-235 Pawnee; Cessna 340A; and Weatherly Aviation Co. 620A.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Arranged by type of media.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Tri-Rotor Spray & Chemical, a division of J & L Smith Farms, is a crop spraying business run by Larry Smith based in Ulysses, Kansas. Tri-Rotor was started with the purchase of a Hughes 269A in 1978 as a way to get crop spraying on Smith Farms done in a timely manner. That first year a neighbor came by and said, "It looks good, could you do mine?" and so started Tri-Rotor's expansion. In 1979, Tri-Rotor purchased a Hughes 300-C that they kept for four years, during which time they sprayed between 7000 to 12000 acres a year. In 1982, they bought a Hiller H-23E, and started to enlarge their fleet in response to demand, buying two additional Hiller H-23Es and one spray coupe ground rig. In 1988, they sold one of the Hillers and purchased a Bell 204B. After a fatal accident in the Bell during May of 1989, Tri-Rotor switched to turbine airplane spraying and bought their first Air Tractor AT-400. Currently Tri-Rotor has three Air Tractors AT-402s and one AT-602, one Ayres Corporation 660 Turbo-Thrush, one Bell OH-58 Kiowa, one Hiller 12E Soloy, one Hiller H-23E (Model 12E), and four ground rig machines. They spray in Texas and Kansas, and have a business in Arizona where they spray predominately lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, cotton and alfalfa. In Arizona, Tri-Rotor also sprays for mosquito control and noxious weed control for the State. They are preparing to be involved in tamarisk control on the major watersheds to increase and improve ground water and to be involved in fire fighting with the US Forest Service. Currently Tri-Rotor employs 50 personnel and sprays approximately 450,000 acres per year. They also sell chemicals directly to farmers.

Administration

Immediate Source of Acquisition
Larry Smith, Gift, 2004
Processing Information
Arranged, described, and encoded by Patti Williams, 2019.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access.
Preferred Citation
Tri-Rotor Spray & Chemical Photography Collection, NASM.2004.0023, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Conditions Governing Use
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Aeronautics Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Aerial spraying and dusting in agriculture Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Piper PA-25 Pawnee Family Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bell UH-1B (HU-1B) Iroquois (Huey) Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Air Tractor AT-400 Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Air Tractor AT-602 Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hughes 269 Family Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ayres Corp Turbo-Thrush S2R Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ayres Corp 660 Turbo-Thrush Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cessna 340 Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Digital images Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Digital versatile discs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tri-Rotor Spray & Chemical Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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