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| How Does Skywriting Work? |
By:
Donnell Johnson |
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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.
How is the smoke made? Skywriting smoke is produced by injecting paraffin oil into the exhaust of the plane. As it heats in the exhaust, the oil produces an environmentally friendly white smoke that forms the letters as it lingers in the air. Of course, the pilot must select when to inject the oil so that part of a letter is formed.
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.
How large is the message? It is usually four to six letters and it takes one to two minutes to form each letter. A shorter message is more likely to be visible at once. Why not make it longer? When a message is longer than this, it will take too long to form so that it is seen all at once. One remedy is to hire multiple pilots. The two or three pilots coordinate their maneuvers so that, as they work together, they will produce the message visible for the minutes before it drifts away.
This method of advertising is so novel that it almost demands to be read all the time the letters are forming. So what kind of people would benefit from hiring skywriting to get their message across? Skywriting has been used to advertise soft drinks, motion pictures, websites, political candidates, products, and so forth. One company says they skywrite fifty marriage proposals each year.
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.
Skywriting is just one of the aerial advertising services AirSign provides. Learn how AirSign has been leading the industry in providing this innovative advertising method since 1996. |
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