Ayres Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer owned and run by

Fred Ayres Fred may refer to: People * Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Mononym * Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French * Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico R ...

History

In 1977, Ayres bought the Albany, Georgia division of

Rockwell International Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avionics and industrial products. R ...

, which made the S2R Thrush Commander agricultural aircraft. Before this, Ayres had been a distributor of Thrush Commanders. After the acquisition, Ayres developed two-seat and turboprop-powered versions of the Thrust Commander. By 1981, the company was operating a crop-dusting training school. A special V-1-A Vigilante version of the Thrust Commander was developed in 1989 for anti-drug operations in South America. The company attempted to sell 10 Turbo Thrush aircraft to Iran in 1993, but was unable to receive an exemption from U.S. government sanctions. In 1996, urged on by

Federal Express FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

, development was begun on the

Ayres LM200 Loadmaster The Ayres LM200 Loadmaster was a small cargo aircraft developed in the 1990s by Ayres Corporation largely for the needs of small-package carriers. In 1996, urged on by Federal Express, development was begun, designed to carry four demi containers ...

, designed to carry 7,500 pounds of cargo. The aircraft was to be powered by two 1350 hp LHTEC TP800 driving a single five-bladed Hamilton-Standard propeller through a combining gearbox. To support this development effort, Ayres acquired the

LET Let or LET may refer to: Sports * Let serve, when the served object in certain racket sports hits the net and lands in the correct service court, such as; ** Let (badminton) ** Let (pickleball) ** Let (tennis) * Ladies European Tour, the ladi ...

aircraft manufacturing company in the Czech Republic in September 1998. In 2001, the company was forced into bankruptcy when creditors foreclosed on it and the Loadmaster program was terminated. In 2003, the company's assets were bought by

Thrush Aircraft Thrush Aircraft, Inc. is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Albany, Georgia. It currently manufactures the Thrush series of agricultural aircraft. History Rockwell International originally built the facility in 1965 and operated it unt ...

Aircraft

References

External links

* Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States Dougherty County, Georgia Defunct companies based in Georgia (U.S. state) {{aero-company-stub

History

Aircraft

See also

References

External links