I never understood the companies that were air drilling in the Devil's River valley of SW Texas back the then.
One crew burned off 3 lengths of drill collar.
I had a good friend that worked on an Air rig. Said you could see the dust cloud for miles. Sounded crazy as hell to me but I have seen some water well/rat hole rigs that used air.
These guys used to go out on a location and drill 40 feet or so. That way you could say you'd started drilling. Also it was handy on a rocky location to have then drill the rat hole and mouse hole ahead of time.