Say it in the Extreme – Skywriting or Skytyping
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Known by a range of terms — skytyping, sky writing, smoke writing, or sky billboards — massive white letters across blue sky backgrounds seemingly magically created from the earth below to create perfectly formed words are actually the feat of highly skilled and accomplished expert pilots.
Photo David Shankbone
The sky is the limit as the backdrop for a colossal billboard for agencies and corporations promoting commercial text messages in the air, or to the average Joe sending personal birthday greetings and even marriage proposals.
In the days of old, pilots performed nearly all stunts known to aviation with turns twists, extreme vertical banks, and loops, but one company is currently performing skytyping digitally enhanced by computers.
A company called Skytyping uses vintage WWII planes with high-tech computers on board that were old navy training planes primarily used to coach pilots in the WWII Korean conflict. Although the technology has vastly broadened, the flying formation still remains an art in itself, with planes in impressive tight configuration of 300 feet between wingtips.
Photo Skytyping
Planes once carried 400 pound tanks of oil burned and passed through exhaust tubes, but computers strapped to the pilot’s leg now create the white puffs of smoke by sending a signal to drop oil on the engine, which is released from an exhaust stack using a non-toxic biodegradable based solution.
The typical smoke generator for the old-school method consists of a pressurized container holding low viscosity oil. The oil is injected into the hot exhaust manifold causing it to vaporize into a vast amount of dense white smoke.
The planes must be light, fast, and quick on the climb up to 2 miles in the air where the wind is nearly dead.
The sky writers have no room for error for non-computer assisted sky writing. The words are typically formed backwards or upside down in a horizontal manner to appear right-side-up from the ground.
The average skytyping message is 1000 feet tall, at about 10,000 feet (3045 meters) in the air, and multi-word messages are the norm. Pilots may have to turn back 2 to 3 miles simply to cross a “T.” They are literally the largest messages in the world.
A 25 letter message can be up to 20 miles (32 kilometers) long, seen for 400 square miles (645 kilometers), and written in as short as 2 minutes. The modern technology performs dot matrix style letters using 5 to 6 planes, and the old-fashioned method requires at least 2 to 3 aircraft to write the same length of stream-style letters.
Photo Skytyping
Skywriting is often done into the wind so the words don’t spread so quickly. The puffs of words can drift 10 to 20 miles before completely dispersing in a gentle breeze. The message is gone with the wind in about 20 minutes, in hopes that they remain etched in memories for miles. The dot-matrix formed letters have a longer lasting effect that the old-school technique.
Despite its transient nature, skywriting has an obvious visual impact considered as a rare air show attraction by many, and deemed a form of visual pollution by others.
One of the earliest mass media exposures of skywriting appeared in the 1939 movie version of The Wizard of Oz, when the wicked witch of the West writes in the skies over Oz, “Surrender Dorothy.”
The first use of sky writing for advertising purposes was in 1922.
Sky Writing Explained – 1930′s
Skywriting Dot Matrix Style Skytypers
If you’re interested in hiring Skytyping, their main operations are located in New York City. Visit them at their website to learn more, or contact them at larry.arken (at) skytyping.com or steve.kapur (at) skytyping.com
Sources: Skytyping and Wikipedia
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Thanks Deborah, I wondered how this was done. It is a shame they can’t ‘draw’ rain clouds
Your posts are always so chock full of interesting facts and research. What a pleasure to read them! So much work goes into them, and just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your hard work.
Since recovering (finally!), I’m now making my way around to my favorite blogs (Yours!)again, and what a joy it is!
Sue, there was a video where they were doing more creative design work, but it was long and drawn out (no pun intended), so I didn’t post it.
Kuanyin, you have no idea how happy I am to hear you’re feeling well again. Great to have you back
You’re making me blush, keee. Thanks so much for your very kind words, and *I* just want you to know how much I appreciate you 
Your posts are always so chock full of interesting facts and research.
Are these images real or photoshopped? It just seems incredible that someone can write something in the sky with such precision. That looks better than my handwriting!!
Thanks Credit
No Jeff, these aren’t photoshopped. All but one were taken directly from the videos themselves.
The precision for the dot matrix style letters can actually be attributed to the on-board computers, in hand of course with the pilot’s expertise for flying the planes to begin with. But the old-school formations are truly an amazing feat
This article reminds me of when I was in high school. I worked for a local flight school that also did banner towing. While this is not skywritting, it is still aerial advertising.
It was pretty cool seeing a Cessna 172 come in low and slow to pick up a banner just feet off of the ground!
Perhaps it isn’t skywriting, but it’s still interesting, eBay, especially considering the maneuvers you’d have to make to fly in so low