(gentle music) (upbeat music) -Hey, I grew up on Air Force bases, how hard could this be?

(upbeat music) I feel the need for speed.

(upbeat music) Oh boy.

(upbeat music) (Mike groaning) (upbeat music) (Mike groaning) (upbeat music) Whoa.

(upbeat music) Help.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Ugh.

(upbeat music) (Mike groaning) (chain rattling) I'm sticking to TV stuff.

(foot stomping) (upbeat music) -[Mike] Nebraska kids work with NASA to build and launch a research satellite, (upbeat music) a wiz at creating fun in the sky, (upbeat music) surgery in space with the doctor on earth?

(upbeat music) What if...!

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Yep, that's me in the Omaha world Herald in 1969.

I've been fascinated by things that fly for a long time.

That's what happens when you have a dad who has a career flying planes like this.

So it's fun to make this episode of "What If..." about innovation and creativity in the sky.

And throughout the show, we're gonna highlight some examples of innovation on display here at the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum.

But first, watch how a Norfolk entrepreneur creates entertainment in the sky.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (visitors screaming) -[Mike] It's opening night of the Nebraska State Fair.

Fire in the hole!

(bell clanks) (whistle trilling) -Winner!

-[Mike] All the usual stuff.

(pet hair dryer whirring) (cows mooing) -Then something most have never seen before.

(dramatic thrilling music) 300 drones plus fireworks telling a story in the sky.

(fireworks swishes and crackles) (fireworks popping) (button clicks) How does this happen?

(tape whirring) -Team is on the road.

-[Mike] It starts with a Wiz who's spent a lifetime building things.

-[Wiz]I don't care if we're pouring concrete or if we're flying a drone show, we're gonna go have fun every day.

Otherwise, why be here?

-[Mike] First thing you need to know about Don Wisnieski is he's Wiz.

Fine with me.

It's easier to say.

He's had a construction company for three decades.

Added curb grinding, insulation, cemetery maintenance, rental houses.

-[Wiz] Unbeknownst to me, people call me a big entrepreneur here in Norfolk, and I never thought of it that way because I was just doing what came naturally and doing something more and doing something different.

(fireworks popping) -[Mike] He's also been in charge of Norfolk's big 4th of July fireworks show for almost as long.

(fireworks popping) A good fit for a guy who grew up in a farm family that threw big parties and shot off a lot of fireworks on the fourth.

-[Wiz] Everybody needs a hobby.

I don't hunt.

I don't fish.

I just blow stuff up, right?

(fireworks bangs and pops) -[Mike] One day, the entrepreneur with a passion for creating entertainment in the sky was approached about pivoting to something kinda new.

(drones whirring) -[Wiz] So, it's like, "Let's think about getting rid of some of the other stuff and go stay with the fireworks and stay with the drones, and make a real good medium out of this for aerial entertainment."

It just goes hand in hand and it really took off.

(tense dramatic music) (drones whirring) (tense dramatic music) (drones whirring) -[Mike] Fantasy Drone Shows has been all over the country, sometimes two different places on the same night, sometimes with fireworks.

(fireworks bangs and pops) (tense dramatic music) Maybe none, so far, bigger than this.

(announcer speaking indistinctly) (fireworks bangs and pops) (spectators cheering) (spectators and announcer speaking indistinctly) (upbeat music) (fireworks popping) -[Mike] Greatest moment so far?

-Greatest moment?

-[Mike] Mm-hmm.

-University of Nebraska, when we did the volleyball game.

(spectators cheering) -Ah, fireworks!

[Players] Whoo!

(players chanting) (fireworks bangs and pops) (upbeat music) -What it took to get our foot in the door?

We actually had to kind of go back way around it and get to John Cook, to be honest with you.

We got a rendering in front of him (upbeat music) and my understanding was, his exact words, "That is sick, make it happen."

(upbeat music) (fireworks pops and rattles) (spectators cheering) -[Brian] It was quite nerve-wracking.

You wanna make an impression.

You've got one shot to do that, and if it doesn't go well, then things aren't gonna go well for you.

But if it does, then your phone's gonna start ringing the next day.

So, we made it all happen and everything went well, and the phone's ringing.

Don Wisnieski here.

How are you this fine day?

-[Mike] So, how do you make a drone show?

It starts with Wiz talking to the customer.

-Now, typically Labor Day is a holiday and that normally goes up to that $350 a drone.

-[Mike] Then the rest of the team gets involved, including business manager Jolene, Wiz's wife.

(Jolene laughs) And guys whose previous jobs had nothing to do with drones.

The connection?

They all helped Wiz with fireworks.

-[Ben] This goes back to when I was talking about Wiz being detail-oriented.

That Fantasy sticker is crooked, so I gotta fix that.

-That's a fancy way of saying OCD.

-Nobody's gonna notice it if it's straight, but they will if it's not.

-Yep.

-It's an image we're after here.

(drones whirring) -[Mike] Now, they're going to show us how they do what they do, creating a special show just for us.

(birds chirping) It starts with Brian looking at location and airspace.

(drones whirring) Our show is easy.

It's happening on the acreage that includes the company's building and family home where they've flown shows before.

(drones whirring) (gentle music) But using the State Fair show as an example, Brian works with Google Earth on one monitor, a VFR aeronautical map for pilots on another.

-[Ben] We need to think about where people are gonna be and where moving traffic is.

We can't fly over people.

We can't fly over moving traffic.

-[Mike] Proximity to airports matters.

Inside the blue dots means inside restricted airspace.

-Most of Grand Island is inside of that Class D airspace, so I know I'm gonna need to have airspace authorization for that.

-[Mike] Brian also keeps audience experience in mind.

About how far, generally, is sort of the sweet spot?

-[Brian] Two city blocks away is ideal.

Like, you really get a good view of the show.

-[Mike] Now Scott and his design studio software takeover.

-[Scott] Here's all my coordinates up here.

So, I can change the radius of it.

I can make it bigger or smaller.

I can change how many times it turns, you know, like right now it's on two.

I could put three in there so it gives it more turns.

-[Mike] Sometimes adapting things already built, like an American flag.

Sometimes starting from scratch, with a little surprise for our show.

Most shows take a week or so to build and can last up to 15 minutes.

(mouse clicking) Scott uses unlimited colors and smooths transitions between images.

The program keeps a safety bubble between drones and provides an accurate look at the show and location where they're flying.

-[Scott] We can kinda tell a story with drones, you know, so it's tying all those images together to make it flow and make it, you know, kinda tell what we wanna tell.

-Our show's gonna have four different elements -Correct.

Yes.

-in the story, right?

-Yep.

(container clattering) -[Mike] Everyone helps with things like packing and prepping the drones.

(drone beeps) -[Justin] How much of your life do you think is spent taking batteries in and out of drones?

-A third.

That's the biggest thing with drones is battery management, (drone beeps) 'cause nothing works without power.

(drone whirring) -[Mike] As another part of the business, Ben uses drones to record video of things, like acreages and houses for sale.

(drone whirring) - That was really freaking close.

-[Crew Member] Yeah, but we're good.

(Ben laughs) (fireworks crackles and pops) -[Mike] And video of their shows.

(drones whirring) (upbeat music) -[Ben] It goes back to being able to market this better in that social media, and utilizing a drone to capture drone light shows is just second nature.

(drones whirring) (door ramp squeaking) What are you doing here?

-Right now we're setting up the ground station.

This will be what communicates with the drones, gets the GPS signal from the satellites, sends all that info.

These are the antennas that we use and the interface boxes.

So the signal goes from the computer into the interface box, into the antenna, sends the information out to the drones.

(wheels rattles) -[Mike] Time to lay out 200 drones on a grid.

(upbeat electro music) -16 meters right to here.

-[Scott]And there's our four corners.

(upbeat electro music) -[Wiz] We put 'em about an inch away from our tape measure that were out there, dead center on a black mark.

-Okay.

-I'll show you the first one, and then after that, you're on your own.

-Okay.

-We pay weekly.

(Mike laughs) -Very weakly.

-Very weakly.

Bu-dum-bum.

(upbeat electro music) Making a drone show.

(upbeat electro music) Don't step on a drone.

(upbeat electro music) -[Justin] How's your back?

-[Mike] This is hard.

Drones are hard.

-Grid's laid out.

(upbeat electro music) (insects chirping) -Yeah, we're good.

Time sync.

Heading check.

-[Ben] Red is noting that it's not facing true north.

-[Justin] How many times have you stepped on a drone doing this?

- None.

I have yet to step on a drone and I have size 15 feet.

-[Justin] I don't believe you.

- I have yet to step on a drone.

-All right, 200 to 200.

Ready?

Everybody good to go?

-Yep.

-Yep.

(uplifting music) (whooshing) (whooshing) (uplifting music) (whooshing) (upbeat uplifting music) -[Mike] It hasn't been long since Wiz even saw his first drone show.

(drones whirring) From idea to investing in expensive drones and software, to adding staff equipment and more drones, Fantasy Drone Shows has grown quickly.

-[Wiz] It really has taken off almost exactly how I was thinking on day one, if we did this, this and this, this and this and this is gonna happen.

And how are we gonna scale it, when are we gonna scale it accordingly.

(light upbeat music) (visitors chattering) (visitor exclaims and laughs) -[Crew Member] Be careful being over the top of those tubes.

(balloon pops) -Winner, winner.

(light upbeat music) (visitors laughing) -[Mike] So what's easier?

Drones or fireworks?

-[Crew] Drones.

-[Mike] Drones?

(laughs) -Less physical work.

(light upbeat music) -[Carny] Catch the family fun game, the ring bottle game.

(light upbeat music) (people chattering) (visitor laughing) -[Brian] Three, two, one, go for music.

(fireworks popping) (upbeat music) (drones whirring) (whooshing) (upbeat music) -You gotta wonder what they're thinking right now.

-Oh, look!

-A cow!

-A cow.

(upbeat music) -[Mike] Talk a little bit about Wiz.

Is Wiz kind of a force of nature?

-Wiz is a cool cat.

Keep our heads up.

They are over our heads.

-I don't know when the guy sleeps.

He works all the time.

He's thinking all the time about how to make things bigger, better, more efficient, easier on the body so that we have energy to do more.

So he just...

He's Wiz.

(light music) (whooshing) (visitor laughing) (whooshing) (light upbeat music) -I'm into the finale.

(fireworks popping) (light upbeat music) (visitors cheers and applauds) -[Wiz] Yeah.

Awesome.

A hundred percent both ways.

-[vistor] That was awesome.

That was probably one of the coolest firework shows, drone shows I've ever seen.

-Yeah.

That's pretty cool.

I've never seen anything like that in person before.

-[Wiz] Our client.

"That was phenomenal.

I'm already getting tons of messages from people.

Thank you."

-Awesome.

(crew chuckles) (drones whirring) -[Crew Member] That's what we like to hear.

(drones whirring) (fireworks popping) -[Mike] You've been doing this for three years and yet you're still giddy about a show.

-I know, I know.

(chuckles) Every show, I still have a gut ache before every show too.

Nerves, of course.

Everyone's a high profile show and you want it to go perfect.

Tonight went perfect.

Couldn't ask for a better night.

(relaxing music) -[Mike] What hooked you?

-[Brian] I think just the fun and the excitement.

I really like working with drones and new types of technology, but there's also that level of creating something for an audience that really awes them.

-[Scott] There's nothing about this that (chuckles) isn't fun, you know?

(relaxing music) That's what this is all about is entertainment.

It's wowing people.

It's great to hear the oohs and the ahs, and the applause at the end.

-[Ben] You know, they say that if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.

I love doing this.

-[Mike] What's in the future?

Maybe shows at national monuments for America 250 celebrations, or shows at the US Capitol or Super Bowl.

Wiz dreams big.

(fireworks popping) -[Wiz] I couldn't be having more fun doing this.

This is just great.

(drones whirring) -[Mike] By the way, since we shot that story, Wiz and team have expanded and opened an office in Ohio to make it easier to fly drone shows in the eastern part of the country.

So earlier I told you we'd be exploring all kinds of aerospace innovation here at the museum, starting with, well, a very different type of drone.

(upbeat music) The Firebee was one of the early remotely piloted aircraft used by the US during the Vietnam War for photographic and electronic reconnaissance, flying 500 miles an hour, just a couple hundred feet off the ground.

Here's something a lot bigger.

The B36 was the largest bomber ever built, designed to fly 7,000 miles and stay in the air for 40 hours without landing.

With this, they had to create a place for crew to take turns sleeping and eating in the back of the plane.

And this innovation is how they got there from the cockpit all the way through the bomb bay.

(dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) It's kind of cozy in here.

(dramatic music) The so-called Magnesium monster was created for intercontinental bombing raids during World War II, but it wasn't ready before the war ended.

With jet aircraft development, it became obsolete before ever dropping a bomb in combat.

(dramatic music) The unique shape of the Vulcan was definitely innovative when Britain's largest combat plane was introduced in the 1950s.

But we're also interested in all the creative restoration efforts that are happening here with the Vulcan and other planes.

(electric saw buzzing) A team of volunteers will work more than 20,000 hours restoring the plane, sanding, stripping and blasting with baking soda layers of paint, fixing broken or corroded pieces, deconstructing and removing inside stuff like flight controls to restore those separately.

Repainting with an eye on detail, using photos and other documents as a guide.

Finally putting it all back together and on display.

For the Vulcan, this will take four years of hard work.

(dramatic music) How about some space travel?

This lander was designed by the Dynetics company as part of NASA's goal to return humans to the moon and establish a base that could lead to missions to Mars.

Innovation starts with the low slung horizontal shape, making it easier for astronauts to go back and forth to the lunar surface.

It was also created to be refueled and reusable.

NASA would select a different company's design for the Artemis Program's human landing system.

But this is still a good example of all the work and innovation going into getting humans back to the moon in the next decade.

So beyond this, there's lots of research happening all the time in space on NASA's international space station, including one project created by some young Nebraskans.

(radio chatter) (upbeat music) -We need somebody to hold the balloon hose in the helium.

Preston, you wanna do that?

Okay, cool.

-[Mike] It's high altitude balloon launch day for the Big Red Satellite team.

-[Student] Let it go and just kinda have your hands ready in that flat spoon position.

-[Mike] The goal?

Test scientific equipment, the payload, they'll eventually send to space in a small satellite.

Tell me what you guys are doing.

We're connecting the sun sensor that we have on the payload to the actual like kind of computer, the brain of the payload.

-I'm working on checking off the checklist, making sure everything gets done that's meant to get done before you launch.

(air hissing) -I had to put on some latex gloves and help hold the balloon down when it blows up, just to make sure the wind doesn't shift it.

(dramatic music) -[Mike] And your payload's going up in a styrofoam - beach cooler?

- Mm hm.

-It gets the job done.

-[students] Three, two, one, go.

(dramatic music continues) (students clapping and cheering) -[Mike] The Big Red Satellite Project began in 2020, with Eastern Nebraska middle and high school students selected to work with NASA, University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineering students and faculty, and industry mentors and advisors.

They met Saturday mornings for several years, mostly in UNL's Aerospace Club lab.

Working on different aspects of the CubeSat that will test perovskites in space.

Hold on, let's take a second to explain these two things.

So what is a CubeSat?

-So a CubeSat, it's a mini satellite.

And so it's a cube that's about 10 centimeters square.

And it has no propulsion system, so it gets launched into space.

And then it orbits.

And the orbit decays, and it burns up, and it comes back.

But it's small, but it can carry very interesting experimental payloads -[student] This is the top face of our payload fixture.

-[Mike] Groups in lots of states have created CubeSats.

This is Nebraska's first.

A cost efficient way to do research in space on things like perovskites.

These are minerals that could be used in solar panels to more efficiently power space vehicles.

-[Karen] They are much thinner, lighter weight than traditional solar cells.

-[Tiegan] The unique thing about perovskites is that they may be able to collect reflected light and use that as energy.

And so that would provide a really useful alternative to current solar panels.

(air whooshing) -[Mike] Each Saturday presents new tasks.

-[student] Oh, there's a big leak right here.

-Where?

-Why don't you mark it.

-[Mike] Like building a chamber to work on the materials in something simulating space conditions.

-[student] Wait, what's the pressure at now?

-[student] Almost 101.

-You said we would send one curve every three days.

-[Mike] Budgeting for data coming back to earth from the CubeSat.

-[student] We're trying to see how much data we can send over.

-[Mike] Which means what?

-[Emma] How we can test our perovskites in space with how much money it costs to send data back to us.

-[Mike] Assembling a model of the CubeSat.

-[Joel]But this will actually carry our payload that does the research.

There's all sorts of different steps along the way that really add excitement.

-Don't want to mess it up.

(laughs) (camera clicking) -[Mike] A few months before the launch, it's photos and reflections, before the CubeSat leaves Lincoln.

-[Photographer] Smile.

-You look at all of this and like this is science, this is development engineering.

And we've gone through it, and we're finally here.

Now we're going to space.

-I started this in high school.

And now that I'm in college it's like, wow, I'm still here.

(laughs) -[Amber] It's cool to see all the iterations that we've gone through.

And being a part of the team, getting to meet like all of these new people over the years.

It's just been a really fun experience.

-My grandfather started, John McClure, started this whole thing.

And I feel like he would be really proud of where we are all right now.

-[Karen] He wanted to do something to bring aerospace industry to Nebraska to expose middle school and high school students to these opportunities.

-[Countdown] Five, four... -[Mike] The Lincoln entrepreneur passed away before getting to see this.

-[Countdown] And liftoff at Jackson Center at eight five plus 40.

(inspiring music) -[Second Countdown] T minus 60 seconds until deployment of Big Red Sat One from the International Space Station.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Mark.

-There it is.

-There we go.

-Look at us.

-Bye-Bye.

-It's pretty cool to see though, isn't it?

- Yeah, I mean there it goes.

- I mean, it was just here, not that long ago.

-[Karen] This data may be of interest, you know, across the world.

There are lots of people studying perovskites.

So we'll be doing our data analysis, but there may be others who are actually analyzing our data as well.

-[Mike] More than three years of hard work paid off.

The CubeSat gathered good information about new solar panel materials.

And a bunch of students, some starting this before they started high school, got the experience of a lifetime.

-[student] Go!

(students cheering) -[Elsa] This process has been very helpful in realizing how much work goes into making a satellite, even when ours is this big.

So all that planning, building, and money that's gone into it, it's just a lot more than I expected.

- I'm going to watch this thing get loaded onto a NASA rocket.

Like dumped out of a bag, and then shot off into space, where it's going to orbit around the earth.

And I'm going to have to look at data points for that is like so wild.

-[Mike]What do you hope the sort of legacy of this project is?

The experiences that the students are getting from this project is amazing, and it's inspiring them.

-[Mike] This wasn't the only Nebraska related research on the space station.

Another tested a surgical tool in space with the doctor on Earth.

Earlier "What If" told you about UNL Engineering Professor Shane Farritor and the robotic surgery platform called MIRA he's creating with his company Virtual Incision.

Here's how it works.

This part's inserted into the patient, two arms and a camera.

-[Shane] MIRA has different instruments, graspers and scissors.

It has cautery energy, so they can burn and cut at the same time and prevent bleeding.

- [Mike] The surgeon operates the robot with foot pedals and hand controllers.

It's similar to robotic surgery tools already in use.

The big difference is small size.

-[Shane] It's like we've shrunk the surgeon down and put them inside the body.

(upbeat music) - [Mike] This makes it cheaper and easier to move from room to room and opens up some other possibilities.

- [Announcer] And lift off!

Go (audio blurs), go Falcons!

- [Mike] Like remote surgery in space?

(upbeat music) (people applauding) That's what MIRA creators tested with the robot on the space shuttle, and Farritor and others operating it at the Virtual Incision headquarters taking turns cutting rubber bands.

(people applauding) -[Shane] We're very excited to finally get our device up in space.

Little robots are very cool, and if we can control it from here on Earth, I think that's a pretty major accomplishment.

- [Mike] This NASA funded test was especially exciting for Farritor who spent a year working at NASA for his PhD.

They were successful overcoming things like a slight signal lag between Earth and the Space station.

The results could help open doors for remote surgery in lots of places.

- So on earth, remote surgery could be very powerful.

It's a ways off in the future, but you can imagine so many hospitals in Nebraska where a specialist or a specialized surgeon And if you could have someone dial in from a distance and assist with the surgery, we could get people to stay home and get better access to the care they need where they live.

(gentle music) - If you like fast, this is fast.

The SR-71 set one record by traveling almost 2200 miles an hour, set another by flying from London to New York in less than two hours.

Not really sure how many airline points you get for that though.

(upbeat music) Lots of invention made this work.

How about coating it with special black paint and precious metals like gold to withstand the 1,000 degree heat of supersonic flight and developing radar and photo systems for this recon plane to survey more than 100,000 square miles in an hour?

(upbeat music) All right, now it's time for me to jet.

Visit our website to check out all of our "What If..." videos and learn about the Nebraska composers whose original music you've been hearing in all of our stories.

And follow us on social media at #WhatIfNebraska.

Thanks to the museum staff here for all their help.

And thank you for watching "What If..." (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (engine roaring) (super sonic burst) (upbeat music) - [Mike] Was designed by the Dynetics company.

How about some space travel?

This Lander was designed by the Dynetics Company.

Can't have enough video of people working on computers.

(woman laughing) - [Man] Is that gonna stay there?

-[Mike] Yep, all right.

(laughing) (wind rustling) -[Man] Nope.

(upbeat music) Help.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)