Precise Skywriting

Isn't that just a group flying in formation with a synchronized computer system putting out "dot matrix" based letters along their course? The formation flying seems to be the hard part, the computer is doing the rest.
 
Isn't that just a group flying in formation with a synchronized computer system putting out "dot matrix" based letters along their course? The formation flying seems to be the hard part, the computer is doing the rest.
People been flyin formation for a hundred years. Ain’t nuthin new there. Someone saying I gotta an idea. Telling the computer what to do and how to do it. Putting the hardware together to do it. Computers only claim to fame is it can think real fast. Actually it don’t think. It’s dumber than a rock. It just does what it’s told real fast
 
Skytyping has been around since the 1970s, maybe even earlier. I remember when it was usually done with a formation of five AT-6s (Edit: Whoops, still is, apparently. There was a group using Grumman-American Tigers for a while, too.)
 
Yup, seen them in person on the ramp, peeked at the equipment. As said before, it is just a huge and pricey dot-matrix printer. Or since it poofs smoke out the pipe, is it a dot-matrix smoke farter? :)
Align in formation, press the big green Go button and let the digital technology produce a message within seconds. No loops required.
 
The smoke is handled by computers. They just need to fly in a straight line at a constant speed. Basically a giant dot matrix printer. Still very cool though. They’re often over Long Island in the summer.
 
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