Can crop dusters be used to disperse chemical agents?
Crop dusters are routinely employed in the agricultural industry to spread fertilizers, pesticides, and seeds. Indeed, crop dusters could be employed to spread a chemical warfare agent. However, anyone trying to commandeer a crop duster for this purpose would have to understand a multitude of factors in order to execute a chemical weapons attack. First, they would have to know how to load the spreader. Second, they would have to be able to actually take-off in a loaded crop duster, a difficult task given that the heavy weight of the loaded spreading apparatus makes take-off in a crop duster quite challenging. To use a basic analogy, the difference between taking off in a regular small aircraft versus a crop duster is similar to the difference between handling a nimble sports car versus a fully loaded double-trailer truck. Pilots of crop dusters are required to have a one-year apprenticeship to learn how to operate and fly the aircraft safely. Someone with limited piloting experience in
