In 1924, the Huff Daland Duster was the world’s first crop duster plane.
The Huff Daland Dusters
crop-dusting company later became Delta.
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Beginning in 2013, Delta Flight Museum Aircraft Manager Art Arace initiated the project to recreate an exact replica of the 1924 Huff Daland Duster. Join Art and his team, staff together with volunteers, as they take the Duster from concept drawings to reality.
This 1925 footage, from film Billion Dollar Bug, chronicles crop-dusting experiments conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture with Army pilots and planes in Tallulah, Louisiana. In the 1920s, seeking an effective way to control the cotton boll weevil that was devasting the South, these efforts led to the development of the first crop duster plane and the first aerial crop-dusting company, Huff Daland Dusters, which later became Delta.
This footage shows Delta crop-dusting planes and personnel, probably in the 1940s. Huff Daland Dusters, renamed “Delta” in 1928, was the first aerial crop-dusting company in the world. At one time, Huff Daland's 18 Dusters made up the largest privately-owned fleet in the world. Delta continued crop dusting until 1966.
– “It had a lot of lift.” Mechanic Gene Berry
Gene Berry, a Delta crop duster mechanic, recalls how the wing design and engine of the Huff Daland Duster helped it handle low flying and sharp turns at the ends of fields while carrying a heavy load of dust.
This movie clip shows Huff Daland Dusters hangar, crop dusters and personnel in Monroe, Louisiana, in about 1925.
