During the summer of 2013 Walt Disney Animation Studios released the movie Planes followed by the sequel Planes: Fire & Rescue in 2014. Planes is about Dusty Crophopper, an ag plane that spreads fertilizer by day but practices aerobatic maneuvers and dreams of being a racing aircraft. It doesn’t help that he has a fear of heights. The sequel has Dusty training to get certified as a firefighting plane. He has water tanks installed and becomes a single engine air tanker firefighter. During its theatrical run, the two films combined earned almost $150 million domestically and over half a billion dollars ($535 million) worldwide. Although there are numerous instances of agricultural aviation intersecting with pop culture, the Planes franchise is arguably the pinnacle of the agricultural aviation industry’s appearances in pop culture.
