SkyWriting!!

Skywriting is freakin awesome!!! It always catches my attention and I usually get very excited. BUT I hardly ever remember what the message is for. I mean this could only pertain to me tho and the message could have nothing to do with me.



Surprisingly, or maybe not so much, there is a lot of advertising for skywriting itself. When I looked up skywriting on google I saw a number of websites for skywriting services and businesses.


















According to AerialAdvertising in New York  (http://www.aerialadvertising.com/skywriting.htm), Skywriting prices start at $1995.00 for up to 10 characters. They do have a special of up to 35 characters for $1500.00. I guess that's pretty affordable, but im sure the better the skywriter the more it costs.

Skywriting isnt only used for advertising and promotion of course.

Lots of people hire a skywriter to write a special message for a special someone.

The small aircraft that is used for skywriting is able to spew out special smoke during the flight. The smoke generator is in pressurized container that holds an oil. That oil is injected into the exhaust manifold which causes it to vaporize into a cloud of dense white smoke. Wind can cause the message and smoke to blur so there are lots of special skywriting technigues that have been developed. There seems to be 2 different techneqeus to skywriting. Either you do a continuious spray or dots. Each letter is about a mile long and about 2 miles above in the sky. On a good clear day the message can be seen from the ground for as far as 30 miles in all directions. When wind drifts the message even more people are able to see it! To write the message the aircraft flies goes as low as 7,000 ft all the way up to 14,000 ft. On hot days skywriting must be done at a higher in the sky.


Skywriting was invented in 1910 in Britain by Royal Air Force Major John Clifford Savage. He developed it as a way to send signals over a large area as a way of communication it other communications were unavailable.

Art Smith

In 1915 a young pilot by the name of Art Smith  was known as a early pioneer of skywriting and he was one of the first American Fliers to loop the loop.






1922 - Pepsi was one of the first companies that was really interested in skywriting and continues to use it to this day. One of the most memorable skywriting moments was done for the Wizard of Oz. The Sky read "Surrender Dorothy or Die." Imagine seeing that in the sky and then going to see the Wizard of Oz IN COLOR!!

In 1949 a new technique of skywriting was invented that was dubbed "skytyping." This is the separate puffs of smoke technique which is actually programmed into the computer.















Pepsi is really the main brand that made skywriting popular. in 1931 Pepsi first uses skywriting with its message "DRINK PEPSI COLA" 8 times over New York. In 1979 they had a commercial where the skywriter wrote "Marry Me Sue" in the sky. I guess that's where all those marriage proposal messages came from!









And finally here for your entertainment is a couple of humorous skywriting messages!


















Sources
The Pepsi SkyWriter. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2011, from 
     http://www.skywriter.info/