Thrush Aircraft
American manufacturer of agricultural aircraft
title: "Thrush Aircraft" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["aircraft-manufacturers-of-the-united-states", "dougherty-county,-georgia"] description: "American manufacturer of agricultural aircraft" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrush_Aircraft" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American manufacturer of agricultural aircraft ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Thrush Aircraft, LLC |
| logo | Thrush aircraft logo.png |
| type | Private Company |
| industry | Aerospace |
| predecessor | Ayres Corporation |
| successor | |
| founded | |
| founders | |
| defunct | |
| hq_location_city | Albany, Georgia |
| hq_location_country | United States |
| area_served | United States/Internationally |
| key_people | Mark McDonald |
| (President) | |
| owner | |
| num_employees_year | |
| website | |
| :: |
| name = Thrush Aircraft, LLC | logo = Thrush aircraft logo.png | logo_caption = | logo_alt = | type = Private Company | industry = Aerospace | fate = | predecessor = Ayres Corporation | successor = | founded = | founders = | defunct = | hq_location_city = Albany, Georgia | hq_location_country = United States | area_served = United States/Internationally | key_people = Mark McDonald (President) | products = | owner = | num_employees = | num_employees_year = | parent = | website = ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Thrush510G.jpg" caption="Thrush 510G"] ::
Thrush Aircraft, LLC is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Albany, Georgia. It manufactures the Thrush series of agricultural, firefighting and special mission aircraft.
History
Rockwell International originally built the facility in 1965 and operated it until it was purchased by Ayres Corporation on 23 November 1977. In July 2001, Ayres filed for bankruptcy and the rights to the S-2 aircraft were passed to Quality Aerospace. In 2003, the factory was purchased by Larry Bays and Payne Hughes, and one month later Quality Aerospace transferred the type certificates of the S-2 to Thrush Aircraft. In 2005, the company had 150 employees. By 2013, this had increased to 185.
The 510 was introduced in 2009. The first two examples of the 510G Switchback, a variant designed for firefighting were delivered to the Georgia Forestry Commission in 2017.
The company entered bankruptcy protection in September 2019, intending to restructure and emerge in a better financial position. The company laid-off 113 employees as part of the process. As a result of the restructuring, Mark McDonald was named CEO.
Aircraft
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/TI-BIA.jpg" caption="Thrush 510P applying over a banana field"] ::
::data[format=table]
| Model name | First flight | Number built | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thrush 510 | Single engine agricultural monoplane | ||
| Thrush 550 | Single engine agricultural monoplane | ||
| Thrush 710 | Single engine agricultural monoplane | ||
| :: |
References
References
- (12–18 November 2002). "Directory: world airliners".
- (2 October 2003). "Thrush Aircraft has good jobs soaring again". WALB News 10.
- (11 December 2014). "Type Certificate Data Sheet No. A3SW". U.S. Department of Transportation.
- (8 May 2005). "South Georgia company proud of its crop-dusting planes". Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- (28 August 2013). "Exporting is Good for GA. Businesses". Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- (20 November 2009). "Thrush introduces next generation of ag aircraft". AlbanyHerald.com.
- (18 December 2017). "Georgia's Forestry Service Gets Newest Firefighting Aircraft". The Telegraph.
- (29 September 2019). "Thrush Aircraft in Bankruptcy".
- (June 2020). "Thrush Aircraft Re-Emerges". Marsayl Media.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::