All About Us...The iTowbot® Builders
Two Aircraft Enthusiasts designed and built the “iTowBot” out of necessity to solve the issue of pulling out and storing aircraft. There was clearly a need to move aircraft while standing at any vantage point to minimize the risks of damage to the aircraft. The idea caught on commercially and Tulsa TowBots was born. Tusla TowBots sold about 150 units in the last two years, primarily through internet promotion on youtube.com and through trade show exhibits.
The international market has been virtually untapped.
TRACE Engines L.P. acquired Tulsa Towbots in June of 2009 and opened TRACE TowBots as a division of our TRACE aircraft engine business.
TRACE acquired the business because we believe in the product and feel we can demonstrate the benefit of the iTowBot to the GA market. The testimonials and references from users alone sell a good number of TowBots a year. Once someone sees the TowBot in motion they can see the value to them. This is especially the case with folks who fly themselves and have to ferry the plane in and out of the hanger alone.
TRACE has implemented product improvements to standardize and increase reliability based on past performance.
TowBots are now built in Midland, Texas in a separate building at the TRACE Engine facility.
The following YouTube video shows a prototype iTowBot being tested with a large Cessna Twin.
Video showing the iTowBot towing a Cessna Citation.
As the design progressed, each attempted to focus on two main points, the welfare of the aircraft and the ease by which the owner/operator could move it. It all began to fall in place. Less is more. Form would follow function. Months of field testing came after that, followed by more revisions. Studying of aircraft nose gear doors, tires, and struts would drive more revisions. Feedback from the field-tested units by their operators would cause more revisions until all of the attributes and handling qualities that Shannon had set out to achieve were accomplished. The problems with starting, pulling, steering, hooking up, not being able to see critical clearances when towing, not damaging the aircraft by turning the nosewheel past its limits, and not exhausting ones self when you are just trying to go out and have some fun, were solved. It was time to start building.
It was only then that the iTowBot was born.
