Skywriting

Skywriting is the process of using one or more small aircraft, able to expel special smoke during flight, to fly in certain patterns that create writing readable from the ground.

[3][4] The first recorded use of skywriting for advertising purposes was over the Derby at Epsom Downs Racecourse in the United Kingdom in May 1922, when Royal Air Force Captain Cyril Turner wrote "Daily Mail" above the track.

[5] In the United States, the first use of skywriting in advertising followed on November 28, 1922, over Times Square in New York City during a visit of Savage and Cyril Turner.

Skywriter Wayne Mansfield created aerial messages for John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and appeared as a sky artist over the Biennale in Venice, Italy.

The process uses five planes, flying in line abreast formation, releasing puffs of smoke under computer control, similar to characters produced by dot-matrix printers.