Remember something like this? You are lying on a beach or attending a music or sports event and suddenly you hear the drone of an airplane. You look up and see a banner floating toward you. It displays a message that you might still be able to remember. This method is called airplane advertising and is very effective.
Getting this banner into the air is no easy trick. If it were attached to the plane before take off, then it could be damaged dragging it along the runway. This would also cause drag, making take off more difficult.
Getting the aerial ad into the sky takes a great deal of skill. But the huge success of banner advertising makes it worth the trouble. First, the airplane takes off with a device called a “grapnel hook” hanging in the window. The other end is attacked to the tail of the airplane by either rope or cable.
When the plane is safely off the ground, the pilot releases the hook and lets it fall so that now it is hanging below the plane, still attached to the tail. On the ground, the banner is laid out in an open area, attached to a lead pole in front. The lead pole is attached to a long rope called the pick up rope, and this, in turn, is attached to a loop of rope that is stretched between two poles about five feet off the ground.
Now the plane circles around and, with the hook dragging below the plane and flying at 80 miles an hour, the pilot heads straight for the two poles. As he reaches them, he throttles the engine and pulls back on the stick, causing the plane to soar upward at a steep angle. The hook snags the loop of rope, thus pulling the plane banner up, off the ground and into the sky. What if he misses? Then he circles around and tries it again.
But how do they keep the banner upright and not, say, spiraling? The end of heavy billboards or banners might have tiny parachutes attached that keep it out. The bottom is also weighted so that it stays down. On some the letters are seven feet tall and it might be up to 50 letters in the message. So with pulling a message that long takes great skill and a reliable plane.
When he has finished displaying the banner, the pilot flies back to the landing field, comes in low and releases the banner. It falls to the ground and is ready for another display if the message warrants it.
Larger planes are able to actually pull the banner with them on takeoff without damaging it, but most single engine prop planes use the plan outlined above to get the banner into the air.
All this may seem like a lot of trouble, but the result is worth the effort. Thousands will see the banner, both at the event and on the way to and from it. The message will get out and people will be influenced by the message. But not all aerial advertising companies are alike. Some simply take an order and contract it out. Since 1996, AirSign has been leading the industry by taking personal care of their customers using the best pilots, sharpest looking planes, and providing accountability for their work through free GPS tracking. Give them a call and find out what they can do for you!