100 Years Ago: May 5-11

From The Indianapolis Star, Friday, May 11, 1923: A demonstration of sky writing, the most recent and novel form of advertising, will be given next week over Indianapolis by English aviator Major John Savage. Representing the American Tobacco Co, Maj. Savage will fly a high-speed airplane above the city at 10,000 feet, writing the words, “Lucky Strike” in smoke generated by the plane. Each letter will be from one-half mile to one mile in height and when completed the words will stretch eight miles across the sky and will be visible for miles from every point in the city. A special apparatus generates a white smoke at a rate of 250,000 cubic feet a second that stands out against a blue-sky background; “Lucky Strike” requires about 80,000,000 cubic feet of smoke. Maj. Savage developed the art of sky writing.