sky advertising

[TranaGreg]

anyone else have this kind of advertising going on? I was out at lunch & it was rather funny watching people walking into poles while staring up at the sky ... apparently it's done by 5 planes leaving a dot-matrix type of writing ... it is kinda weird to see ...

[revo]

1960s technology finally hits the Great White North!




Seriously, is this the first time you've ever seen sky writing? :shrug:

[Bob Kohm]

Yeah... I mean I'm really not ragging on Canada, but sky writing was basically a way for WWII-era pilots to continue using their precision formation flying skills in the 50, 60s & 70s. It died when those guys stopped flying, for the most part.

[revo]

I've seen plenty of sky writing but nothing like that before. Cool stuff.

that's just bizarre. Skywriting was a staple over Brooklyn skies for as long as I can remember (5-plane dot matrix type only). As a kid in the '70s seeing it was cool, but now I say to myself "why on earth would someone pay to have an ad that last 5 minutes before it becomes one illegible giant cloud?"

[Bob Kohm]

I've seen plenty of sky writing but nothing like that before. Cool stuff.

Really? As Ed says, it was a NYC staple-- the ballparks, Jones Beach, Coney Island, even just over commercial areas. Five planes flying in formation doing exactly that-- it's actually the only type of skywriting I've ever seen outside of cartoons. What other kinds have you seen?

[revo]

Really? As Ed says, it was a NYC staple-- the ballparks, Jones Beach, Coney Island, even just over commercial areas. Five planes flying in formation doing exactly that-- it's actually the only type of skywriting I've ever seen outside of cartoons. What other kinds have you seen?

Totally agree here. Anyone who grew up in NYC, especially south of Manhattan, were always treated to this. I spotted skywriting last summer here (Northern NJ) and it brought back memories.

I have to admit BK-- the skywriting planes always seemed like they were 5 miles up. You almost never saw the planes, and it seemed as if they were smaller than the exhaust cloud. I did always wonder how the heck they did that.

[Bob Kohm]

I have no idea what kind of planes they were but they didn't do that dot thing. I think it looks pretty neat.

Edit: The ones I've seen just say "love" and "jesus" and "marry me Susan" and stuff like that.

Wow, that's something. I always just assumed that the way I've seen it was "the way it's done". I can't imagine how difficult it is for a single plane with a smoke generator to write a message-- always thought that was only in cartoons. I'd love to see that some day.

[Bob Kohm]

Totally agree here. Anyone who grew up in NYC, especially south of Manhattan, were always treated to this. I spotted skywriting last summer here (Northern NJ) and it brought back memories.

I have to admit BK-- the skywriting planes always seemed like they were 5 miles up. You almost never saw the planes, and it seemed as if they were smaller than the exhaust cloud. I did always wonder how the heck they did that.

Yep-- summer weekends there were always skywriters over the Harbor and the beaches, and I remember as a kid seeing them over places like downtown Flushing and the Rego Park shopping area in Queens all the time. I remember watching a Discovery/NatGeo (?) documentary on skywriters at some point-- the planes were often WWII trainers like Texans or biplanes like Wacos and the pilots were all WWII/Korea vets. Eventually the Texans especially became worth a fortune as warbirds and the pilots aged out with no large pool of formation qualified flyers behind them to take their jobs, which is what caused the process to slowly wane.

[bryanbutler]

what elD is talking about is like:


same for me - that's the only kind of sky writing i've ever seen - never seen the dot-matrix type. must be a west vs. east coast thing?

[Bob Kohm]

what elD is talking about is like:


same for me - that's the only kind of sky writing i've ever seen - never seen the dot-matrix type. must be a west vs. east coast thing?

God that must be hard to do.

Seems that what you're showing is actually "sky writing" and what me and Ed have seen is called "skytyping", although I've always heard it called skywriting.