Jim Campbell spied a little something interesting at NBAA-BACE 2023: A remote control aircraft tug. Tracy Haeggstrom, mechanical engineer for AC Air Technology, walked him through the upsides of the easy life without a tow bar. His firm’s RC tug can be had in 7 different models, allowing for the right selection for an aircraft’s size and weight and footprint. It makes wheeling around an aircraft an absolute breeze, with a remote control giving operators complete freedom of movement as they walk around the aircraft.
The system can work for pretty much any aircraft under the sun, Haeggstrom notes, even a Cirrus with those large wheel fairings. The whole process is hands-free, requiring an operator to simply position the tug by controls, and command it to engage and lock itself to the wheels.
Pricing isn’t too painful, either - at least, it’s much cheaper than the back surgery one needs after a bad winter slip hand-pushing a heavy twin uphill. Haeggstrom says that on the low end, the basic AC Air Technology tug runs about $4,000, with the highest-end ones at the $11,000 price-point in 2023 dollars. For operators cramming in multiple aircraft to a hangar, it could be just the ticket to staving off the expansion to lease another bay - perfectly arranging a puzzle of aircraft is much easier when you can walk all around the plane.
Aero-TV is a production of the Internationally syndicated Aero-News Network. Seen worldwide by hundreds of thousands of aviators and aviation adherents, ANN's Aero-TV has produced well over 5000 aviation and feature programs, including over 2500 episodes of our daily aviation news program, AIRBORNE UNLIMITED, currently hosted by Holland Lee. Now in its third decade of operation, parent company Aero-News Network, has the most aggressive and intensive editorial profile of any aviation news organization and has published well over a half-million news and feature stories since its inception -- having pioneered the online 24/7 aviation new-media model that so many have emulated.
Aero Linx: The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is a United Nations agency which helps 193 countries to coopera>[...]
About 25 Days (9.3 Hours) Before The Accident, The Airframe Was Modified With Different Landing Gear Legs, Wheels, And Brakes Analysis: The pilot reported that during the landing r>[...]
Dave Juwel's Aviation Marketing Stories ITBOA BNITBOB ... what does that mean? It's not gibberish, it's a lengthy acronym for "In The Business Of Aviation ... But Not In The Busine>[...]
“Over 2025, Vertical has shown that when we set targets, we deliver. Whilst maintaining our industry-leading capital efficiency, we are not only demonstrating all piloted fli>[...]
Aero Linx: Air Medical Physician Association (AMPA) The Air Medical Physician Association (AMPA) is the largest professional organization of physicians dedicated to rotor wing (hel>[...]
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (11.06.25)
See All