Effective Advertising with Skywriting

Ever since the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz came out, with the wicked witch writing SURRENDER DOROTHY OR DIE in the sky with her broom, sky writing has fascinated people. (That film message was really done with special effects in a 6 foot by 6 foot glass tank.) Sky writing goes back further than that, to 1922 in England. That same year advertisers began using skywriting and it became famous by Pepsi-Cola who used it from 1931 to 1953.

Are the letters really formed by smoke? Yes, skywriting smoke is made by inserting paraffin oil into the exhaust of the plane. The oil vaporizes in the heat making an environmentally friendly white smoke that lingers in the air. Of course, the pilot only injects the oil into the exhaust when he is in a position to form part of a letter.

The letters are about a mile tall and the message may be as long as fifteen miles. The drifting smoke only retains a letter for at most 20 minutes so the message must be written quickly and without mistakes. There is no such thing as a smoke eater to erase mistakes! The success of the mission is determined by several factors. First the skill of the pilot. He must be both skilled and artistic. Second, the plane must have sufficient maneuverability and power. The power is partly needed to produce sufficient heat (1500 degrees) to vaporize the paraffin oil. Some recommend planes with at least 450 horsepower engines because they are six times hotter than small plane engines.

Of course a major factor is the weather. The wind cannot be more than three to five miles per hour and the sky must be nearly clear to see the white letters against the blue sky. The letters are therefore formed when and where these conditions are met, somewhere between 7000 and 17000 feet. At these heights, the message can be seen for thirty miles on either side. The cooler the air temperature the better, but it cannot exceed 95 degrees. Usually September or October are the best months for ideal weather conditions.

Messages are usually four to six letters long and each one takes one or two minutes to form. A shorter message is more likely to be visible at once. When a message is longer than this, then the first part may be gone by the time the last part is formed. One remedy for this is to get multiple planes involved. When two or three pilots coordinate their maneuvers, they can produce the message visible in its entirety for a few minutes before it drifts away.

Remember too that the pilot is writing from the top, horizontally, that is, parallel to the earth. Therefore he must write the letters backwards so that they appear correctly to the readers below. They must also be relatively the same size and in a straight line so that the message is readable. All this takes great skill.

Who would benefit from using skywriting? After all, it is so unique that people would have a hard time NOT reading the letters as them form in the sky. Some who have benefited from skywriting are advertisements for websites, political candidates, motion pictures, soft drinks, and others. It is also used for novel announcements. Fifty marriage proposals are written in the sky each year by one company.

What does all this cost? The cost depends on the company, and on the availability. For example, if you must fly in a skilled pilot from some distance, that will add significant cost to the adventure. But for local skywriting, count on starting around $1000 and look for a discount if you get more than one message or the same message multiple times. Contact a company experienced in aerial advertising for more information.