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Skywriting is the process of using a small aircraft
Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to flight by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere, of a planet. Examples include balloons, airplanes and helicopters....
, able to expel special smoke
Smoke

File:Bling-Bling Skywriting David Shankbone.jpgSmoke is the collection of airborne solid and liquid particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrainment or otherwise mixed into the mass....
 during flight, to fly in certain patterns to create writing
Writing

Writing is the representation of language in a textual Media through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and the recording of language via a non-textual medium such as Magnetic tape sound recording....
 readable by someone on the ground. The message can be a frivolous or generally meaningless greeting or phrase, an advertisement aimed at everyone in the vicinity, a general public display of celebration or goodwill, or a personal message such as a marriage proposal
Proposal of marriage

The proposal of marriage is an event where one person in a intimate relationship asks for the other's hand in marriage. It often has a ritual quality, involving the presentation of the engagement ring and a formalized asking of a question such as "Will you marry me?"....
 or birthday wish.

The typical smoke generator consists of a pressurized container holding a low viscosity
Viscosity

Viscosity is a measure of the Drag of a fluid which is being deformed by either shear stress or extensional stress. In everyday terms , viscosity is "thickness"....
 oil such as Chevron/Texaco "Canopus 13" (formerly "Corvus Oil").






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Skywriting is the process of using a small aircraft
Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to flight by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere, of a planet. Examples include balloons, airplanes and helicopters....
, able to expel special smoke
Smoke

File:Bling-Bling Skywriting David Shankbone.jpgSmoke is the collection of airborne solid and liquid particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrainment or otherwise mixed into the mass....
 during flight, to fly in certain patterns to create writing
Writing

Writing is the representation of language in a textual Media through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and the recording of language via a non-textual medium such as Magnetic tape sound recording....
 readable by someone on the ground. The message can be a frivolous or generally meaningless greeting or phrase, an advertisement aimed at everyone in the vicinity, a general public display of celebration or goodwill, or a personal message such as a marriage proposal
Proposal of marriage

The proposal of marriage is an event where one person in a intimate relationship asks for the other's hand in marriage. It often has a ritual quality, involving the presentation of the engagement ring and a formalized asking of a question such as "Will you marry me?"....
 or birthday wish.

The typical smoke generator consists of a pressurized container holding a low viscosity
Viscosity

Viscosity is a measure of the Drag of a fluid which is being deformed by either shear stress or extensional stress. In everyday terms , viscosity is "thickness"....
 oil such as Chevron/Texaco "Canopus 13" (formerly "Corvus Oil"). The oil is injected into the hot exhaust manifold causing it to vaporize into a huge amount of dense white smoke.

Skywriting is never a permanent process. Wind
WIND

The Global Geospace Science WIND satellite is a NASA science spacecraft launched at 04:31:00 EST on November 1, 1994 from launch pad 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Merritt_Island%2C_Florida, Florida aboard a McDonnell Douglas Delta II 7925-10 rocket....
 and dispersal of the smoke cause the writing to blur, usually within a few minutes. However special "skytyping" techniques have been developed to write in the sky in a dot-matrix fashion, and are legible for longer despite the inevitable blurring effect caused by wind.

Despite its transient nature, skywriting has an obvious visual impact and can be considered a form of visual pollution
Visual pollution

Visual pollution is the term given to unattractive or unnatural visual elements of a vista, a landscape, or any other thing that a person might not want to look at....
.

In a 1926 letter to The New York Times one Albert T. Reid wrote:
A newspaper paragraph says skywriting was perfected in England in 1919 and used in the United States the next year. Art Smith
Art Smith (pilot)

Art Smith was an American pilot. He grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Indiana; in 1910, his parents mortgaged their home for $1,800 so that he could build a plane, on which he spent six months; however, he crashed it on his first flight, destroying everything but the motor....
, who succeeded Beachey
Lincoln Beachey

Lincoln J. Beachey , was a pioneer American aviator and early star performer. He was known as The Man Who Owns the Sky, and sometimes the Master Birdman. Acknowledged even by his adversaries as "The World's Greatest Aviator", Beachey achieved the acme of American adoration....
 in flying exhibitions at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, after the latter had been killed, did skywriting, always ending his breathtaking stunts by writing "Good night." This was not a trial exhibition but a part of every flight, and was always witnessed by thousands.


The first use of skywriting for advertising purposes was in 1922.

See also

  • Skytypers Air Show Team
    Skytypers Air Show Team

    The Skytypers Air Show Team are an aerobatic team that perform at airshows around the United States using six SNJ-2 World War II-era planes. The team is sponsored by Geico....


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