what is a 'crop duster'?

Answer 1

That's Crop Circles, Heidi! Yeah it is a plane that sprays insecticide on fields. You see them if you live out in the country, alot more than the circles. It could also be a hand held sprayer of dusty insecticide.

Answer 2

Usually, an aircraft used for dusting or spraying large acreages with pesticides, though other types of dusters are also employed. Aerial spraying and dusting permit prompt coverage of large areas at the moment when application of pesticide is most effective and avoid the need for wheeled vehicles that might damage crops. The technique was greatly improved in the 1960s with the development of ultra-low-volume applicators, in which concentrated pesticides are distributed in extremely small amounts

Answer 3

A crop duster is a light aircraft, which is used to drop various pesticides in a controlled manner over crops.

Answer 4

An agricultural aircraft is an aircraft that has been built or converted for agricultural use -- usually aerial application of pesticides (crop dusting) or fertiliser (aerial topdressing); in this role they are referred to as "top dressers" or "crop dusters." Agricultural aircraft are also used for hydroseeding.


The most common agricultural aircraft are fixed-wing, such as the Grumman Ag Cat, PAC Fletcher, or Rockwell Thrush Commander but helicopters are also used.

Crop dusting with insecticides began in the 1920s in the United States. The first widely used agricultural aircraft were converted war-surplus biplanes, such as the De Havilland Tiger Moth and Stearman. After more effective insecticides and fungicides were developed in the 1940s, and aerial topdressing was developed by government research in New Zealand, purpose-built agricultural fixed-wing aircraft became common.

Answer 5

Here is a picture of a "Crop Duster" spray plane. Some are called sky tractors.

http://static.flickr.com/22/27345910_d5c9092eca_b.jpg

Answer 6

It is a modified air-plain. It can fly low over the crop/field and sprays with various chemical to protect the crops from various fungus, insects.......harmful to crops.

Original were putting out cloud of dust(powder chemical like DDT), hence the duster. They apply chemicals to crops.

To-day most of them carry water soluble chemical to be strayed on the fields with or without the crops in it, to treat the soil only or to treat the crops.

Answer 7

I am very impressed with all of the above positive answers. Most are correct with only slight errors of no significant degree. Thanks to aerial application (the politically correct name for crop duster), America and most of the world has a safe and bountiful supply of food, through high-yield agriculture that utilizes the professional crop duster, who BTW is highly trained. For more info: http://www.agairupdate.com and http://www.agaviation.org
Publisher: Bill Lavender

Answer 8

a crop duster is an airplane equipped with tanks to hold pesticides to spray large fields

Answer 9

I guess it's got to do with the spraying of insecticides /pesticides by small airctaft over large cropped areas which otherwise would never be able to be sprayed due to the vast size of the cropped land.

Answer 10

the aircraft which sprays pesticides on the crops is called crop duster......this is the original meaning maybe in 2006 its a slang for something else......i 2 would lik 2 kno.......