Snowplane

Flying across the prairies

I've just purchased a 1964 Polaris Air Sled after getting my adrenalin charged reading the new snowmobile history book, As The Snow Flies. I don't have it home yet (Saskatoon), probably early April.

This sled was one of 25 purchased by Polaris and painted/decaled in their colours. It was made by the Trail-A-Sled Corp. of Crosby, Minnesota. The company started up making snow planes and then produced the Scorpion line of snowmobiles for several years before selling out to Arctic Cat. I think this purchase was part of the reason Arctic Cat went bankrupt.

My sled is restored with new paint (dark blue with flame painted front—sounds awful, looks cool), recently overhauled 125 HP Lycoming engine, tandem seating, new upholstery, South Wind gas heater, electric start and twin headlights, sliding canopy, and three skiis. It weighs just 690 lbs and is advertised to exceed 80 mph, climb 20 degrees and get 250 miles out of a 12 gallon tank.

There were a hundred of these on the prairies before the provincial governments began plowing snow-covered roads after WW II. We had two factories in Saskatchewan (Lorch at Spy Hill and Fudge at Moosomin).