Ayres Thrush Commander

The Snow S-2A, designed by Leland Snow in 1958, was offered with 220hp Continental (S-2A), 450hp Pratt & Whitney (S-2B), and 600hp Pratt & Whitney (S-2D) radials.

In 1965 Snow sold the manufacturing rights to Aero Commander Inc of Bethany, Oklahoma, who renamed it Ag Commander S-2D. Two years later when Aero Commander became part of North American Rockwell, the design was further developed with a fully-enclosed cockpit, electric flaps and an enlarged 1818-litre chemical hopper and marketed as the S-2R Thrush Commander from a production line at Albany, Georgia.

The Thrush Commander proved popular with crop-dusting and spraying operators, and also for aerial seeding, fertilizing and even water-bombing. Its robust structure was carefully designed to absorb energy on impact and thus protect the pilot from serious injury in a crash, and the ease of access to its corrosion-proofed tubular fuselage structure via quick-release side panels greatly facilitated cleaning chemical deposits from the airframe.

In 1977 Rockwell International disposed of the Thrush Commander type certificate and all production facilities to Frederick Ayres of Ayres Corporation, who continued production at Albany while working on a number of improvements to the basic design. Among these was a trial installation of a 750shp Pratt & Whitney of Canada PT6A turboprop engine which was aimed both at reducing operating costs and solving the increasingly difficult problem of obtaining spares for the radial piston engines powering all previous Snow/ Commander/Thrush models. The PT6-powered Turbo Thrush (known in the business as the 'Hush Thrush' because of its quietness compared to the Radials) is now in full production at Albany alongside the standard S-2R Thrush 600 and 800 which are offered with either Pratt & Whitney or Polish Pezetel 3S 600hp powerplants or an 800hp Wright Cyclone. The Turbo Thrush also incorporates a larger 2273-litre chemical hopper, and for pilot comfort all current production models offer optional air conditioning and even stereo cassette decks. A two-seat Thrush has been developed to enable a mechanic/flagman to be ferried to working sites or to permit dual instruction for trainee Ag pilots. Parts of the cabin and the outer wings of the Thrush were used for the PZL M-18 Dromader.

Bill Gunston "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Commercial Aircraft", 1980

3-View

A three-view drawing (1107 x 1371)