Yes, that is an eagle made of flying drones—and yes, it’s on fire. Stone Mountain Park is known for its over-the-top Fourth of July shows, and this summer’s 250th Celebration is no exception. An impressive drone and light show, followed by fireworks, runs May through August, but you can catch the extra-dazzling fire drones (the only ones in Georgia) from July 1–6 during the Fantastic Fourth Celebration.     Paul Creasy is the president of Full Spectrum, which partners with Stone Mountain Park to create the show. We asked him how they pull it off. Pyro Eagle “We call this our ‘Pyro Eagle.’ When it starts to flap its wings, we’ll trigger the pyrotechnics. That’s 250 drones, 50 with the fire effect. They are being flown by computers, but we have a pilot in command of the operations, plus a ‘pyro shooter’ who triggers the fire drones to ignite.” Safety First “Our pilots have commercial drone licenses, and the Federal Aviation Administration grants us waivers to fly multiple drones at night and for some drones to carry a ‘pyrotechnic payload.’ Then, we demonstrate the effect to the state fire marshal to get their blessing. From an artistic standpoint, we thought, Fireworks on drones would be really cool, and the technology was there. Then it was just a matter of letting the regulations get sorted so we could do it safely.” Painting with Drones “This show tells the story of 1776 with drones, videos, lasers, music—it’s phenomenal; it’s like painting with drones. There’s a magic to the drone swarm, seeing them in the air. And of course, people love fireworks, they love anything with flame effects. So fire drones, they are the best of both worlds!” This article appears in our July 2026 issue. The post The only fire drone show in Georgia is at Stone Mountain’s Fantastic Fourth Celebration appeared first on Atlanta Magazine. ...read more read less