Agricultural flight

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PLZ-106AR Kruk during the demonstration of the spray application on a flight day
Grumman G-164 Ag Cat
An agricultural helicopter sprays pesticides in vineyards on steep slopes

The agricultural flight deals in agriculture besides the pest , where insecticides are sprayed from the air, with the application of mineral fertilizers , the plant protection , liquid fertilizer and seed . In particular, the liming of the forests, which were heavily attacked by the acid rain , using helicopters and agricultural aircraft has gained in importance in Germany in recent years. For example, birds can be scared off by the aircraft itself when growing fruit .

By aerial survey with infrared cameras can be aerial photographs make, document the damage to forests. One can record the extent of a flood , but also damage caused by game or erosion in cornfields.

Agricultural aviation is more of a fringe group in aviation . In western Europe , plant protection by means of airplanes is rather uncommon, with the exception of liming , as it also causes considerable environmental and collateral damage . Especially in areas with high wind frequency, it is almost impossible to only spray the assigned areas from the aircraft, even if the flight is particularly low (less than one meter altitude). Apart from this wind protection belt, dense colonization with relatively little arable land and land lines hinder the continuous deep fly. In the countries of the former Eastern Bloc as well as in the USA , this type of treatment of agricultural land is still carried out frequently on the huge fields there.

One particular application is the use of agricultural planes in South America to make drug fields unusable. During the Vietnam War , American sprayers were used to defoliate forests with Agent Orange , resulting in serious diseases due to contamination.

history

A Curtiss Jenny flown by triple Mackay Trophy winner John A. Macready on August 3, 1921 as an agricultural aircraft in a spraying operation near Troy , Ohio
A Mi-8 applies lime fertilizer over the Thuringian Forest , 1987

Even before the First World War, there were considerations to use aircraft to apply pesticides. In 1910 an agricultural journal from Dr. A. Carl makes the proposal to develop small airships for such missions. This suggestion was taken up by the chief forester Alfred Zimmermann from Detershagen near Magdeburg. On March 29, 1911, for a fee of 97 marks in patent no. 247028, he registered a method for the destruction of the nun caterpillar and other forest pests by "sprinkling the trees from above, using an aircraft" May 1912 was issued. In 1913 Zimmermann turned to Luftschiff-A. G. in Ludwigshafen, who agreed to make the airship "Hansa" available for these experiments. The project ultimately failed due to the resistance of the Prussian forest administration, which did not want to approve the 500 RM required to buy Kalkarsen . The inadequate flight safety and low payload prevented practical tests with the aircraft of the time. Taking up Zimmermann's idea, the airship construction company Zeppelin investigated the usability of airships in the spring of 1914. The flights carried out for this purpose were unsuccessful, however, as constant maintenance of the required height of 10 to 20 meters for deploying the protective agent was not possible due to the constant movement of air. Eventually the First World War interrupted all efforts in this regard.

After the end of the war, Zimmermann's idea was picked up in the USA and in 1918/19 aircraft were used for the first time to control pests at Reno. 1921 was fighting at Troy, Ohio Catalpa instead -Schädlingen with lead arsenic. Zimmermann himself later commented:

"After the Americans 'stole' the German patents, including mine, it was soon heard that airplanes were spreading poisonous chemicals in the USA against plant pests."

In 1923, the Soviet Union developed the Konjok-Gorbunok, its first agricultural aircraft, which was mainly used to control locusts and was replaced by the U-2, which was used in large numbers from 1929 . In 1923, under the chairmanship of W. F. Boldyrew near Chodynk, agricultural areas were sprayed for the first time by airplanes. In Germany, Aero Lloyd under the direction of the biologist Max Wolff carried out spray tests for the first time on May 22, 1925 with converted Fokker Grulichs in Biesenthal near Eberswalde. In the same year, agricultural flights to combat tree pests ( pine trees and nuns ) began regularly in Bavaria and 2950 hectares of forest had been cultivated by the end of the year. The Junkers company soon showed itself to be a leader in this area with its converted F 13 and W 33 . By 1928, 70 of these two types were used to apply pesticides, but the Fokker Grulich also remained an often used model. In 1927, Caspar-Werke developed the C 32, the only model in Germany designed as a spray aircraft. However, it could not prevail against the more powerful W 33 and did not get beyond the prototype stage. In the years 1925 to 1929, 25,524 hectares of forest area in Germany were pollinated from the air. As a result of the global economic crisis , which meant the collapse of many companies, activities in the agricultural sector slackened noticeably in the following years and in 1932 there were only two chemical companies that carried out pest control from the air in connection with the sale of their products. With the seizure of power by the National Socialists, this situation gradually changed and from 1936 all agricultural aviation activities were subordinated to the "Fliegerforstschutzverband". In the same year, the “Berlin-Tempelhof Flight Command”, which is subordinate to the Air Force , was set up by the Reich Forestry and Aviation Ministry . This unit was initially equipped with six converted Dornier Do 23s and was later increased to over 60 aircraft of the types Focke-Wulf Fw 58 Weihe , Fieseler Fi 156 Storch and Henschel Hs 126 . Thanks to these expansion efforts, Germany was in fourth place in the world for agricultural aviation nations in 1936, behind the Soviet Union, the USA and Great Britain.

After the Second World War , the development of special aircraft, especially in the USSR and the USA, both of which had extensive agricultural areas, advanced. For the time being, decommissioned military aircraft were used. From 1947, the Antonov An-2 biplane was deployed , which has proven itself and is partly still in use today. Its western counterpart, albeit built in significantly smaller numbers, is the Piper Pawnee . Helicopters were also used from the early 1950s, one of the first being the Mil Mi-1 . According to a UN study carried out at the end of the 1970s, around 26,000 agricultural aircraft and helicopters were in use around the world, covering an area of ​​255 million hectares, i.e. around five percent of the area used at the time.

Special forms of agricultural flight

  • Downwash flight with helicopters (drying of cherry cultures and similar fruits after rain)

Fighting the starlings

A specialty in agricultural flight is the fight against starlings by means of airplanes, which is operated Europe-wide only in Seewinkel in Burgenland (Austria) and only by appearing, making noise and banging pistols, i.e. without poison. The local winegrowing associations commission specialized companies to fly their small planes over the vineyards at a low altitude, thus causing the starlings to soar. Once a swarm has been scared up, it will be kept in the air for up to an hour, depending on the skill of the pilot, and will be moved to another area by the wind and its own forward movement during the escape. The birds are slowly returning to their abandoned sources of food. A flock of birds can stretch for several kilometers and comprise several hundred thousand animals that are able to empty an average vineyard in less than an hour .

Tight wires and cables, scarecrows , trees and masts are dangerous obstacles for the agricultural pilots. The low altitude of a few meters is often not enough to reach an emergency landing in the event of technical problems . Wind and turbulence make life especially difficult for the star pilots. The period from the beginning of August to the end of October is the main season for this type of pest control, depending on the weather and the degree of ripeness of the grapes. The harvest or the departure of the starlings ( migratory birds ) end the hunt. The planes only drive away the birds, they do not fly into them. Because of the speed with which birds change their movements compared to an airplane, this would only be possible by chance and is not at all desirable, since the aim of the "star fighter" is to keep the flock together and not to divide it.

Used aircraft

Special aircraft are being developed for use in agricultural aviation. For this purpose, they have containers in the body for the goods that are to be carried. There are also special systems for application. The tank usually measures between 400 and 1300 liters. Because of the steep slopes, helicopters are used in viticulture. The properties of the aircraft used should include good all-round visibility, good-natured flight behavior and high maneuverability even at low flight speeds. For this, the curb weight should be as low as possible. Robust, single-engine aircraft with a rigid three-point landing gear are often used. The pressurized cabin is also dispensed with. The engine is a piston engine or a propeller turbine air jet engine .

See also

literature

  • Claus Märten: Agricultural aviation - yesterday, today, tomorrow . In: Flieger-Jahrbuch 1970 . Transpress, Berlin 1969, p. 93-106 .
  • 1911–1961 - Airplanes as agricultural and forestry equipment . In: Heinz AF Schmidt (ed.): Flieger – Jahrbuch 1962 . Transpress, Berlin 1961, p. 35-42 .
  • DA Campbell: Some observations on Top dressing in New Zealand . In: New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology Volume X . 1948.
  • Ross Ewing, Ross MacPherson: The History of New Zealand Aviation . Heinemann, 1986.
  • Janic Geelen: The Topdressers . In: NZ Aviation Press . Te Awamutu, 1983.
  • Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries: Topdressing . Government Press, Wellington 1973.

Web links

Commons : Agricultural Aviation  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Patent A. Zimmermann on depatisnet.dpma.de, accessed on May 26, 2017
  2. ↑ Heinz A. F. Schmidt (Ed.) 1911–1961 - Airplanes as agricultural and forestry equipment in Flieger-Jahrbuch 1962. Transpress, Berlin 1961, p. 37.
  3. ↑ Detlef Billig, Jörg Mückler: On the history of agricultural flights , in: Flieger Revue Extra No. 7, Möller, Berlin 2004 ISSN  0941-889X . P. 7
  4. ↑ Marton Szigeti: The aircraft of the Reichsforstmeister: forest workers . In: Aviation Classics . No. 2/2013 . Motor Presse, Stuttgart 2013, p. 28 .
  5. ^ Walter Britt: Agricultural flight , in: Flieger Revue 3/72, S, 128-132
  6. ↑ Flieger Revue 10/1982, p. 478
  7. ↑ Extreme low altitude flight: Piper Cub in agricultural use , aerokurier.de, June 16, 2011, accessed on May 26, 2017
  8. ^ Another fatal "Starfighter" crash in Burgenland , in: Austrian Wings, Österreichs Luftfahrtmagazin, August 11, 2015
  9. ^ Klussmann, Niels author: Lexicon of aviation . ISBN 978-3-662-54039-8 .