Skytypers: Long Island-based GEICO Skytypers carries on family tradition writing messages in the sky

Ten thousand feet up, the words appear as if by magic. But behind every puff of white smoke is a team of 20 professionals that makes up the Long Island-based GEICO Skytypers. Larry Arken, the current

News 12 Staff

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Sep 2, 2016, 1:00 PM

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Updated 3,032 days ago

Ten thousand feet up, the words appear as if by magic. But behind every puff of white smoke is a team of 20 professionals that makes up the Long Island-based GEICO Skytypers.

Larry Arken, the current team leader, is carrying on a family tradition that spans two generations.

"My dad started the business about 40 years ago and I took it over 20 years ago," says Arken.

Everyone on the team, is a professional pilot, Arken is the captain for a major airline, and most have military jet fighter experience.

The messages are about three miles long and are seen in a 20-mile circle. The pilots say that about 3.5 million people get exposed to each message in the New York metropolitan area.

Most of the sky typing messages are for corporate clients, but they have also done a few personal messages over the years.

The smoke puffs that form the messages are produced by injecting a non-toxic paraffin-based solution into the hot aircraft exhaust. The actual typing is completely computer driven.

"The laptop transmits data to my aircraft, which is in the middle, and that downlinks to the other aircraft and triggers the smoke to make the giant letters in the sky," says Arken.

The Skytypers will be flying in the New York Air Show at Stewart Airport in Newburgh on Saturday and Sunday.