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Skywriting has come a long way since the Wicked Witch of the West wrote “Surrender Dorothy” with the smoke trailing from her flying broom.
Skywriting is a complex art, and this week one of the most precision-focused groups to spell out messages in the sky will come to Reading.The GEICO Skytypers, pilots who use exhaust and precision flying to “type” out giant messages, will make their first appearance at Reading Regional Airport during the 27th annual World War II Weekend hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum.
The Skytypers, based in Farmingdale, N.Y., fly a squadron of six SNJs, which are Navy planes flown by pilots in World War II and the Korean War. SNJs were used to train most Allied pilots in World War II. The aircraft was so frequently used as a trainer that many American pilots referred to it as the “pilot-maker.”
In Reading, the Skytypers will perform an 18-minute low-level, precision-flying demonstration at 3:40 p.m. Friday and at 4:10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Weather-permitting, the team hopes to skytype prior to the demonstration.
The Skytypers use the SNJ-2, which has a larger fuel tank, allowing the pilots to stay in the air long enough to perform their skytyping maneuvers. Of the 61 SNJ-2s originally manufactured, only 11 remain, and the GEICO Skytypers have six of them.
According to pilot Steve Kapur, the road to becoming a Skytyper is a long one.
“We have a very thorough training regimen,” said Kapur, who has been with the Skytypers for more than 15 years. After learning the team’s formation protocol, prospective Skytypers are then responsible for transporting the aircraft while not in the air.
From that point, the only way to get a spot on the team is to wait for one to open up.
Most of the Skytypers have military backgrounds and developed their flying and formation skills while in the service. Kapur is one exception: not only is he not ex-military, but he started working with the Skytypers as part of their marketing team.
The technology that allows the GEICO Skytypers to execute their signature aerial typography is as fine-tuned as the pilots’ flying skills. The team’s 11 pilots fly five planes, arranged side-by-side and 250 feet apart.
To create the enormous messages, the lead aircraft is equipped with a computer program that sends signals to the other planes, causing them to release timed puffs of smoke, according to the team’s website. This technique, 17 times faster than skywriting, creates words that can be seen for 15 miles in any direction.
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