In an effort to meet historic demand, Air Tractor airplanes will be produced with a modified paint scheme, offering customers standardized color options, reports Air Tractor President Jim Hirsch.
Despite the supply chain debacle, Air Tractor had a record year for deliveries in 2022. Production for 2023 and 2024 is projected to be even stronger. With demand outpacing supply, Air Tractor reflected on its mission statement pledging to “provide aircraft to help feed and protect the world.” In support of that mission, Air Tractor recognized that to meet this historic demand, a change is necessary to provide capacity in the paint department.
“Our airplanes will always look and fly like an Air Tractor,” says Hirsch. “Air Tractor is introducing a modified paint scheme for its agricultural airplanes. A yellow base color with blue stripes is the standard color scheme. Customers may choose white as the base color, with no upcharge, if specified at the time of order. Color choices for the main stripe and pin stripe scheme, which will be the same color, are blue, black, red, and green. Our firefighting scheme will remain unchanged. These standardized choices will help the factory respond to high demand by reducing bottlenecks due to paint in the production process.” Hirsch says he
anticipates the new paint scheme will begin appearing on airplanes late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter of the 2023 production schedule.
Overall, Hirsch reports the updated stripe scheme streamlines the painting process and improves Air Tractor’s overall airplane production efficiency as the aircraft manufacturer aims to produce a record-setting number of planes this year.
“Air Tractor is growing and evolving to deliver more of what our customers want. Leland Snow always pushed for continuous improvement and was driven to help our customers get their job done. Unlike the supply chain, this is within our control and supports our mission of helping feed and protect the world. We do that by getting more airplanes to the market. Our products will evolve over time without losing the spirit of what it means to be Air Tractor,” Hirsch adds.
