Burningman Pyro-Laser-Plane show.
The first ever FAA approved Laser show from an aircraft in the United States!
Burningman 2025 show CANCELED!

Bush Air is withdrawing the Bush Air Cessna C170X airplane from participating in the Burningman event due to costs, logistics, policies, support, funding and sponsorship. The airplane has been restored to its original Bush Air branding.

We failed to raise external funding to cover the costs of this project which includes the operating costs of the airplane, the laser equipment, costly debri-free expendable pyrotechnics, the many months and hundreds of hours spent modifying and flight testing the airplane. The laser equipment that was used for the Burningman show is now up for sale so that we can try recover some of the expenses.I am glad we had the opportunity to have been able to produce the 1st ever Laser show from an aircraft in the US. The FAA decided that Burningman was a suitable venue to do this for the first time due to its remote location and that there were already other high power laser installations on art cars and stages on the ground during the event.

Plans are currently underway to take the show to the High Sierra Fly-In scheduled for October 4, 2025. HSF is a well known aviation event held on the Dead Cow Lake bed out in the Nevada desert, 8 miles West of Pyramid Lake.

 
"CC" Pocock's C170-X experimental Bushplane was modified to take on the temporary role of the "Black Rock City Air Force" mutant Pyro-Laser plane. The first ever mutant airplane to appear at the Burningman festival and the first ever aircraft to be modified to carry high power laser projectors to project laser beam effects from the sky. This project was in the Skunkworks from January 2024 and is the creation of pilots "CC" Pocock and Christi Masi "Tumbleweed" for the Burning Man festival in August 2024.

This first ever show took take place at Burningman in August 2024 and consisted of laser and lighting effects projection and fireworks launched from the aircraft North of the Black Rock City. The show was controlled in the aircraft by pilots CC Pocock and Christ Masi. Making all this possible was mainly due to CC's many years of experience in laser, lighting, sound and pyrotechnic special effects as well as being a DJ for many years too.

After sunset on two nights during the event the rockets and missiles were removed and replaced with lasers, lighting and pyrotechnics. The airplane operated out of the Black Rock City Airport (88NV).

Lasers and lights are controled by Christi on a laptop mounted to the instrument panel. CC flys the plane and controls the pyrotechnics from a custom built controler installed on the instrument panel. Power is supplied from a 3.5kw inverter in the rear of the plane. Many more modifications are planned for future shows including special higher power lasers and propane (poofer) flame effects.

The idea for the project started in December 2022. Many hundreds of hours and thousands of $ was spent on modifications, flight testing, rehearsals and approvals.