NAAA Announces 100th Anniversary
The National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA) has shared that August 3, 2021 marked the 100th Anniversary of aerial application. Lt. John A. Macready, a U.S. Army pilot flying a modified Curtiss JN-6 “Super Jenny”, spread lead arsenate dust over catalpa trees to kill sphinx moth larvae. The experiment was done under the direction of the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
Aerial application was then utilized by the government in 1922 to dust cotton fields to control boll weevils near Tallulah, LA. Huff-Daland Dusters, Inc. – the forerunner of Delta Airlines – did the first commercial dusting of crops in 1923 using its own specially built aircraft.