A decommissioned Boeing 747 jumbo jet fuselage will taxi the streets of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas Wednesday as Area15 becomes the new home of what once was an interactive art piece displayed at Northern Nevada’s Burning Man festival.
A chunk of the old aircraft’s upper deck, which includes the plane’s cockpit, will be loaded onto a transport trailer early Wednesday, then moved on surface streets to the Area15 campus with an expected arrival of around 9:30 a.m.
Traffic is expected to be disrupted along the route.
The cockpit section of the fuselage from the 747 is 23 feet wide, 72 feet long and 16 feet 4 inches tall and will be towed on a flatbed truck. A caravan of art cars and a repurposed airport fire truck art car with costumed Area15 performers will accompany the jet on its journey.
The plane will be loaded at a storage facility near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Las Vegas Boulevard North Wednesday at 6 a.m. with a scheduled 7 a.m. departure.
The caravan will drive south on Las Vegas Boulevard to Cheyenne Avenue, turn west on Cheyenne to Rancho Drive, south on Rancho to Decatur Boulevard, south on Decatur to Sahara Avenue, east on Sahara to Valley View Boulevard, south on Valley View to Meade Avenue, and east on Meade to the Area15 campus.
Adding the repurposed 747 is part of Area15’s expansion plan that includes the Universal Parks & Resorts year-round horror attraction.
The expansion is to include more than 450,000 square feet of customized retail, office and residential space featuring different types of building structures, with tenant leasing opportunities ranging from 1,000 square feet to 60,000 square feet. The Universal attraction will occupy more than 110,000 square feet in a stand-alone building on the southern end of the expansion.
The decommissioned jet is expected to host special events.
According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, which covers the Burning Man festival, Bay Area-based Big Imagination camp first brought the 747’s nose to Burning Man in 2016 as a stationary art piece. In 2017, the front of the jet body was reassembled and outfitted as an open-air nightclub and “mutant vehicle” that was towed around Black Rock City during Burning Man.
After getting stuck on the playa in 2018, the 747 ended its run on the Black Rock Desert in 2019, after which the plane was placed in storage before being bought in 2022.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
