Skywriting

Advertising with skywriting involves using a small aircraft to write text and graphics in the sky using the controlled emission of a special smoke. Often visible for several miles skywriting can be a very effective way of reaching an audience of hundreds of thousands of people at any one time. Skywriting has the added bonus of being able to captivate your audience and they will often stop and watch a display throughout the entire skywriting process. More than a simple flash of advertising the skywriting text can often linger for several minutes, and in doing so, your audience will probably keep an eye on it as it gently fades away. However, it will more than likely leave an almost indelible impression in their minds.

Durability

Skywriting is only a very temporary way of advertising as wind and turbulence will soon disperse the smoke, making the graphics or text appear blurred until it eventually fades away.

How is it made?

The smoke that is used in skywriting is often created by burning a special oil that is expelled through the planes exhaust to leave a white smoke against the blue background of the sky. The oil that is used to create the smoke is usually environmentally friendly and is often produced from a specially treated paraffin base. In order to produce clearly readable text, the aircraft will require the skills of an experienced and professional pilot, who specialises in skywriting or aerobatic displays.

How long does it take?

Once airborne and flying at the correct altitude planes can often write all of your text in less than a few minutes.

How big is the skywriting?

It's not unusual to find skywriting letters about 1 mile square and complete words over 10 to 15 miles wide.

How far away. Can you read skywriting?

In good conditions, the individual letters of skywriting text can usually be seen up to 30 miles away, but in order to actually read the text, you would probably need to be less than 10 miles away.

Limitations

A single aircraft will usually only write about six to eight letters in the sky, however, by using more aircraft, you can often create more than 20 characters. As you might expect, weather conditions need to be fairly good in order to produce clear text and graphics in the sky. Essentially, wind should be no more than about 5 mph and a temperature should be less than 25°C. As a result, it may often be difficult if not impossible to predict whether or not, skywriting would be a suitable form of advertising of any particular day of the year more than just a few days in advance.