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).
ABOUT YIELD DEFENDER
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.
*_photo_1_*
