Air Tractor has introduced the AT-504 – an all-new turboprop spray plane and trainer.
Side-by-side cockpit seating is the most noticeable feature of the AT-504. Under its aluminum skin the AT-504 is built on Air Tractor’s AT-502B airframe. It also is powered by the same engine, a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-34AG turboprop.
“The AT-504 performs very well as a spray plane, but offers another benefit as well,” said Leland Snow, president. “It gives experienced pilots the ideal platform to more effectively pass on to newer pilots what they have learned from many years in the cockpit. Better training in a highly capable turbine airplane can help make our whole industry safer.”
In the AT-504 cockpit, instructor and trainee stations are each equipped with complete flight controls, while avionics and instruments are shared.
“Side-by-side seating allows for instant observation, instructions and correction, if necessary,” Snow observed. “This setup gives both pilots virtually the same view from the cockpit so that they share the same perspective of the flight. It’s simply a more natural and responsive way to learn.”
The first production AT-504 out of Air Tractor’s Olney, Texas, manufacturing plant will be delivered to the Sugar Group, Indonesia, where it will be utilized in pilot training and spraying duties on the company’s 160,000 acres of sugar cane plantations.
For more information: AirTractor.com
