How Does A Skywriter Write In The Sky?

To skywrite, the pilot releases smoke-making chemicals into the airplane’s exhaust pipe.  The trail of smoke they produce traces the letters.

Skywriting is a method of writing in the sky with an airplane.  A trail of smoke traces the letters.  Most skywriting message are advertisements that promote products advertisers want to sell.

Skywriter

The smoke used for skywriting is made from special, smoke making chemicals carried in a tank.  When the pilot wants to write a smoke letter, he releases some of the liquid chemicals into the airplane’s exhaust pipe.

The heat from the hot gases of the engine changes the chemicals into a very thick smoke.  This smoke then comes out of the plane’s smoke tubes in long streams.

It takes many hours of practice for a pilot to become a good skywriter.  He has to learn not only how to write backward, but also to write quickly before the wind blows his message away.

Each letter may be about a mile long.  People can see the giant letters spread out across the sky for many miles.–Dick Rogers

How Does An Altimeter Work?

Altimeter

An aneroid (barometric) altimeter shows a plane’s altitude above the earth by measuring the atmospheric pressure, which lessens as the altitude increases.

An altimeter is an instrument that shows a pilot just how high his airplane is above the earth.  Most altimeters are aneroid (without air) barometers, made to read in feet of altitude instead of inches of mercury.

Like all barometers, the aneroid altimeter shows changes in air pressure, which lessens as the altitude increases.

Behind the dial is a small metal can called a diaphragm from which most of the air has been removed.  As the airplane goes up, the air pressing against the diaphragm lessens, allowing the diaphragm to expand.

The movement of the sides of the diaphragm move the hands on the face of the altimeter.

Still another kind of altimeter is called a radio or radar altimeter.  It measures altitude by sending radio signals to the ground.

It tells the altitude by measuring the time needed for the radio signals to reach the ground and bounce back to the plane. – Dick Rogers

How do gliders fly?

Gliders soar across the sky by riding on air currents.  Airplanes without engines are called gliders.  They are very light, with long, slender wings.

A glider can glide downhill on air.  It also can soar  upward on rising wind and heat currents in the air.

These updrafts are caused by warm air that rises upward from sun-heated plains.  In hilly land, up currents can come from wind that rises up a hillside.  There are also rising currents in large, puffy clouds.

When a glide pilot finds a rising current of air, he sets the rising air push his light glider upward.  Then no glides downhill until he finds another rising current.

A good glider pilot can soar aloft for many hours.  In flight, gliders are controlled like regular airplanes.

Most gliders are launched by pulling them into the air like kites at the end of a long line towed by automobiles or airplanes.

Once aloft, the glider unhooks and is trees to sail without power on the air currents. – Dick Rogers