Crop Duster with attitude...

[wunwinglow]

 

 

I bet Cary Grant would have run even faster if it was one of these coming after him...

 

Great subject for a model though!!

 

Tim

[ssculptor]

Thats a nasty looking dude!

[Hartmann352]

Nice, looks like Dusty Crophopper got more upgrades.

 

That would actually be a cool build.

[LSP_Ron]

Strange,

 

Having grown up on the Prairies and seen crop dusters a plenty,  wouldn't it just be the air equivalent of ground target? they maybe maneuverable but I don't think they would be hard to hit with a sling shot if your close enough. Maybe I am wrong but it seems pretty impractical.  Like putting an 120mm gun on a Massey Ferguson tractor, painting it green and calling it a tank.

[wunwinglow]

Ah, but with a LITENING pod and a couple of laser guided bombs, they could loiter high up and do damage well out of range of rpgs and aks, and still be cheap, tough and easy to fly from rough forward strips. You could darken the sky with hundreds for the price of one F35.

 

Tim

[vobis khan]

This is an idea that has been proposed in many ways, by many different folks over the last 50 or so years.

It has yet to be actually used (IIRC).

I've seen so many pics of crop dusters tarted up this way, but never seen one used.

I think that even the smallest Air Forces refuse to use these, no matter how good the Cost Benefit Analysis is.

Sad too, as I think they might really be fairly useful, given the right conditions.

[Hartmann352]

Wow, what kind of bugs are in that farmers field?

[FunkyZeit]

5 bladed pt6? Thing would haul ass Ron. Plane is big enough to fit a 67D in it. 1279 shaft horse and 5000 transient torque, easily get this puppy to a-10 speeds. Pretty cool, definitely impractical.

 

Edit: just did some looking and these things do exist, air tractor website.

Edited April 2, 2014 by FunkyZeit

[fastzx]

http://wildfiretoday.com/2009/06/18/air-tractor-converts-air-tankercrop-duster-into-armed-tactical-attack-plane/

 

2009 Paris air show

[fastzx]

Crew: 2 (tandem)

Length: 35 ft 8 in (10.87 m)

Wingspan: 59 ft 1 in (18 m)

Height: 11 ft 6 in (3.5 m)

Wing area: 401 sq ft (37.3 m2)

Empty weight: 6,400 lb (2,903 kg)

Gross weight: 16,000 lb (7,257 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 16,000 lb (7,257 kg)

Powerplant: 1 × Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67F turboprop, 1,600 shp (1,200 kW)

Propellers: 5-bladed Hartzell Propeller HC-B3TN

Performance

 

Maximum speed: 230 mph; 370 km/h (200 kn)

Cruising speed: 184 mph; 296 km/h (160 kn)

Range: 1,841 mi; 2,963 km (1,600 nmi)

Endurance: 10 hours

Service ceiling: 25,000 ft (7,620 m)

Armament

 

8 hardpoints for up to 9,000 pounds (4,100 kg) payload, including but not limited to:

2,500 pounds (1,100 kg) or 1,000 pounds (450 kg) smart bombs

8 × AGM-114 Hellfire laser guided missiles

38 × 2.75 inches (70 mm) Hydra 70 folding fin aerial rockets

2 × GAU-19 .50-calibre (12.7×99 mm) gunpods

[FunkyZeit]

Well I got the engine mostly right

[simmo]

I was in Belize in the 80s and a couple of crop dusters turned up with an unmarked Lear jet sprouting many strange things. The Dusters wasnt armed but had several bits of armour plate on sides and underneath and as the pilots went to there aircraft they were carring extra plates for the seats. Think they where sent by the large country near by for drug control.

[oldthudman5]

Air Tractor...........I guess this is their COIN offering...........