Eagle Tugs has been pulling for you since 1969.
In 1969, the genesis of today’s air cargo industry occurred. Eagle was there to answer the airlines call for an all-weather, high speed cargo tractor which had not yet been invented. Eagle successfully engineered and developed the Ford F-350 Bob Tail for United Airlines at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Within two decades, the Eagle Bob Tail had become the narrow and wide-body cargo towing standard used by all North American and British airlines, and also military GSE. Still today, the Eagle Bob Tail remains the leading high-speed cargo tractor on the global market.
Eagle then decided to employ its 20 years of knowledge and success with the Eagle Bob Tail into the design of a line of aircraft tugs for the corporate, regional and military aircraft markets. In 1989, the All Wheel Drive (AWD) TT series aircraft tractors were born. Today, the Eagle TT series remain the only AWD, mid-operator aircraft tugs in their class. Additionally, with over 25 years of design improvements, the TT series aircraft tugs are so reliable that they are backed by an industry-leading 3-year/3,000-hour warranty.
Because of the tremendous success of the Eagle TT series, Eagle Tugs set out to find other markets that would benefit from the AWD TT series. In 2003, the Eagle Transit Pro was introduced to the Transit market. The Transit Pro is an AWD TT series tow tractor that is upfitted with a bumper system to push inoperable buses back to the service garage. The Transit Pro is also equipped with an air compressor and jump-start system to service buses on the spot. The Eagle Transit Pro has proven to be an all-in-one service tool for transit authorities and bus fleet owners worldwide.
In 2006, the US Army, who had been succesfully using the Eagle TT-8, came to Eagle with a need for an AWD aicraft tug that could also handle a sizeable payload. Eagle engineers redesigned the mid-operator TT-6 and TT-8 into front-operator versions that freed up the back to handle up to 2,000 lbs. of payload. This new utility aircraft tug, the Eagle USATS, has successfully been deployed by militaries around the world ever since.
Also in 2006, General Motors Corporation (GM) came to Eagle Tugs with the need for standardizing their tow tractor (tugger) fleet across all of their plants worldwide. With extensive input from GM operators, and safety and manufacturing engineers, Eagle designed the RTT series A/C electric line of tow tractors. The Eagle RTT's were designed to meet the strict efficiency standards required by high-volume manufacturers such as GM. The RTT's offer opportunity-charging to allow the tuggers to handle 3-shifts of operation without having to change batteries, they are ergonomically correct, being the only tuggers to offer operators stand-up and sit-down operation, and they deliver a 1,000-hour PM schedule versus the 200-hour PM schedule of other tow tractors.
In 2009, Eagle then brought its expertise in designing and manufacturing A/C electric tow tractors to the aviation market. To compliment its ever-popular TT series, Eagle introduced the eTT series Four-wheel Drive (4WD), Four-wheel Steer (4WS) 80V A/C electric aircraft tractors. The eTT series offer customers a zero-emission alternative to diesel. Functionally, the eTT's offer customers an aircraft tug solution to handle any weather condition, and at the same time, the four-wheel steering makes the eTT series nimble enough to handle today's crowded ramps and hangars.
In its first 40 years of business, Eagle Tugs has earned a reputation in the corporate, regional and military aircraft tug market for building robust, reliable products, and offering customers exceptional customer service. In 2011, at the request of Eagle's airline and ground handler customers, Eagle instilled its 40 years of aircraft tug manufacturing experience into the design of a line of commercial aircraft pushback tractors. The Eagle XL series is a 4WD/4WS line of aircraft tugs large enough to move all "single-aisle" aircraft in all weather conditions. From its inception, the XL series has proven to be a tremendous tool for Eagle customers, as it is employed with corporate and airline customers around the globe.