what is it?
The Air Tractor AT-500 is a family of agricultural aircraft that first flew in the United States on 25 April 1986, manufactured by Air Tractor Inc. Of monoplane low-wing, taildragger configuration, they carry a chemical hopper between the engine firewall and the cockpit. Compared with their predecessor, the AT-500 family featured a wingspan increase of 50 inches (127 cm), and an additional fuselage stretch of 22 inches (56 cm), allowing for a larger chemical hopper.
How to recognise it: 1 turboprop · 15.9 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 40 years ago, in 1986.
- Top speed is 1.9× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Wingspan of 15.9 m: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
- Can fly 1.2× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).
turboprop: A jet-style turbine turning a propeller: efficient on short hops.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1986-04-25
- status
- in production
- number built
- —
- role
- agricultural aircraft
- makers
- Air Tractor
- engines
- 1× Pratt & Whitney PT6A-34AG
- length
- 10.2 m
- wingspan
- 15.9 m
- height
- 3 m
- max take-off weight
- 4,754 kg
- top speed
- 248 km/h
- cruise speed
- 209 km/h
- range
- —
- ceiling
- 10,973 m
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q54163823, Wikipedia: Air Tractor AT-500 family (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.