I was perusing the latest edition of Aviation History magazine and came across an article on unsung aircraft designers. One of the "unsung designers" was a fellow named Fred E Weick, one of the early pioneers in aviation (he worked with Lindbergh and Earhart and designed the NACA cowling.)

Weick joined the faculty at A&M after WWII and designed the first aircraft conceived from the ground up as a Crop Duster. The aircraft was built at A&M and designated the Ag-1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_A%26M_College_Ag-1

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Soon after World War II the National Flying Farmers Association in the United States set up a research programme on agricultural aviation. This was supported by the CAA and undertaken by the Personal Aircraft Research Centre at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. The Ag-1, designed by Fred Weick, was the first outcome of this programme and led some eight years later to the Piper PA-25 Pawnee, another Weick design. A CAA contract was awarded on 7 December 1949 which provided input from the CAA, the Department of Agriculture and two aircraft manufacturers. A country-wide survey conducted by the CAA, backed up with a series of personal interviews, established a user view of the necessary features of an aircraft intended for crop spraying, dusting and fertiliser application. Aided by the donation of engine, propeller, undercarriage etc. by interested makers, the Ag-1 made its first flight on 1 December 1950, less than a year after the start of the contract.

The Ag-1 was followed by two more agricultural prototypes, the Transland Ag-2 and Transland Ag-3; the latter was the immediate predecessor of the Piper Pawnee. Though the Pawnee was smaller, lighter, different in detail and initially less powerful than the Ag-1, its basic layout remained unchanged.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Weick

Another Link

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Texas A&M College Aircraft Research Center. Texas Ag-1 [N222]

Ag-1 aka Weick Ag-1, -2, -3 1950 = Agricultural plane. 1pOlwM; 225hp Continental E-225; span: 39'0" length:
29'8" load: 1200# v: 115/100/45 range: 400; ff: 1/x/50 (p: Ted von
Rosenberg). Hugh DeHaven, Fred Weick. Might be considered as the mother of all modern ag sprayers in the world. POP: 1 [N222].
There followed Ag-2 with 450hp P&W R-985 in 1956, redesigned by
George Wing at Transland Company (qv), and the 1958, Wieck-designed
Ag-3, which became the prototype Piper Pawnee.

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Wonder where it is now? Belongs in a museum at A&M.

Thanks for the pic, Canyon.

Leland Snow, the founder of Air Tractor, was also an Aggie. His fingerprints are on practically every modern crop duster design. I'm friends with a crop duster whose Dad flew one of Snow's first designs.