97
From The Desk of Dennis Dunbar
The night air shows at SUN ‘n FUN have become the bar all other night shows are measured against. But that didn’t happen overnight. While night shows in their current format, particularly the multi-media finales are relatively new; night airshow acts have been around since the 1920’s when barnstormers would attach railroad flares to the wings of their Curtiss Jenny and fly for small crowds around the country. Prior to his flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Charles Lindberg even flew a night show. Modern night show acts really came into being with the great Art Scholl, who in the 70’s added pyro to his Chipmunk routine. In the 1980’s, legends like Gene Soucy and Steve Oliver began performing night shows. We started seeing night time parachutists and even wingwalkers. In the 90’s Bill Leff soon followed along in his T-6 Texan and added a musical track to his show. By the late 1990’s, night air shows became more prevalent and more performers were adding pyro or lights to their shows.
The first night air show I produced was in Terre Haute, Indiana in 2003. We had a jet truck, Steve Oliver, Gene Soucy and pyro, but we had not yet thought about putting all these elements together. I went on to produce several night shows like this all around the country, but we didn’t start combining elements until I was the airshow director at Oshkosh. We started with combining pyrotechnics to the fireworks show. We experimented with drones, but the technology wasn’t there yet. We then added airplanes to the show, followed a couple years later with the big fireballs that have become a fan favorite.
I left Oshkosh after ten years to come to SUN ‘n FUN in 2023 where Gene Conrad had just taken the reins of the Aerospace Center for Excellence, the parent organization of SUN ‘n FUN. I call Gene “My enabler!”, as he took the restrictor plate off and let us really expand on what was becoming the night show phenomenon. The first thing we did was improve the sound quality, so the track that gives you the goosebumps, happy tears and all the other feels, hits you in the chest and makes you a part of the experience. We also doubled the amount of ground based pyrotechnics involved. Additionally, we also added drones to the show, which took a lot of collaboration with the FAA to build separate safe areas for the airplanes to operate in while providing vertical and lateral separation from the fireworks and now drones.
Since then we have added lasers to the finale as well, but to give credit where credits due, the team at Greenwood Lake had lasers first. We added pyro to the drones in 2024, testing those first at a smaller but awesome show in Batavia, NY. This year, we added the Red Bull Air Force to the finale, where several of their wingsuits jumped from the Red Bull Helicopter and flew their wingsuits through the drones that were shaped like a can of Red Bull. Also in 2026 we tried something new on Wednesday only. We collaborated on a track with the popular DJ, MOONLGHT, and built the timeline of effects around this track that he performed live from the main stage while the night show finale was going on behind him. At the conclusion of the show he performed a set of his own from the main stage.
Putting these night show finales together is my favorite thing to do. To be able to collaborate with the rest of this incredible team on the final product is a privilege. Everyone should be excited to know we have a couple new elements we are preparing for 2027, and I can’t wait for the SUN ‘n FUN guests to see what comes next as we continue to revolutionize the night airshow experience!
It’s Good To Be Us!
Dennis Dunbar
Executive Director, Airshows & Attractions
SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo
The night air shows at SUN ‘n FUN have become the bar all other night shows are measured against. But that didn’t happen overnight.
While night shows in their current format, particularly the multi-media finales are relatively new; night airshow acts have been around since the 1920’s when barnstormers would attach railroad flares to the wings of their Curtiss Jenny and fly for small crowds around the country. Prior to his flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Charles Lindberg even flew a night show. Modern night show acts really came into being with the great Art Scholl, who in the 70’s added pyro to his Chipmunk routine. In the 1980’s, legends like Gene Soucy and Steve Oliver began performing night shows. We started seeing night time parachutists and even wingwalkers. In the 90’s Bill Leff soon followed along in his T-6 Texan and added a musical track to his show. By the late 1990’s, night air shows became more prevalent and more performers were adding pyro or lights to their shows.
199