The Pepsi Skywriter Airplane I Flew In Is Now In The Smithsonian – Wow, Do I Feel Old! – For Mobiles

The Pepsi Skywriter – Travel Air D4D – From 1931 to 1953, Andy Stinis performed skywriting in this airplane for Pepsi-Cola. During those years, skywriting with smoke was a premier form of advertising, and Pepsi-Cola used it more than any other company. Pepsi-Cola acquired the airplane in 1973 and used it for air show and advertising duty until retiring it in 2000. Peggy Davies and Suzanne Oliver, the world’s only active female skywriters since 1977, performed in it.
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The Pepsi Skywriter is one of more than 1,200 Travel Air open-cockpit biplanes built between 1925 and 1930. Popular and rugged, Travel Airs earned their keep as utility workhorses and record breakers. The design was the first success for three giants of the general aviation industry, Lloyd Stearman, Walter Beech, and Clyde Cessna, who in 1925 established the Travel Air Manufacturing Company in Wichita, Kansas.
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Display Status
This object is on display in Aerobatic Flight at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.
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Physical Description: Three-place, open-cockpit biplane with red, white and blue paint scheme. Wright J-6-7 (Wright R-760-ET), 240 hp engine.

Wingspan: 9.3 m (30 ft 5 in)
Length: 7.3 m (24 ft 1 in)
Height: 2.4 m (8 ft 11 in)
Weight, empty: 891 kg (1,968 lb)
Weight, gross: 1,200 kg (2,650 lb)
Top speed: 209 km/h (130 mph)
Engine: Wright J-6-7 (R-760-ET), 240 hp

Fuselage – steel tube, fabric-covered
Wings – spruce spars, spruce and plywood ribs, fabric covered
Landing gear – all-metal
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The Pepsi Skywriter is one of more than 1,200 Travel Air open-cockpit biplanes built between 1925 and 1930. Travel Airs were popular and rugged aircraft that earned their keep as utility and record-breaking workhorses and saw service around the country as crop dusters, barnstormers, and as private planes for the sportsman pilot. For 40 years, pilots flew the Pepsi Skywriter across the United States for the Pepsi-Cola Company delivering a unique form of advertising known as skywriting.
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In 1973 Alan Pottasch and Jack Strayer of Pepsi began a search for old skywriters and found N434N still with Andy Stinis. They intended to display it at the Pepsi corporate headquarters in Purchase, New York, however, Strayer, a former skywriter, soon persuaded Pepsi to install navigation and communications equipment and tour it once again. In 1977, Strayer hired Peggy Davies as a second pilot and then, in 1980, when Davies became a Pepsi corporate pilot, Strayer hired Suzanne Asbury. Pepsi also gave the aircraft a bright red, white, and blue paint scheme. Strayer died in 1981 and, in 1982, Steve Oliver joined Asbury as a second pilot for the Pepsi aircraft fleet that included N434P, another 1929 Travel Air. In 2000, Suzanne and Steve Oliver suggested that the aircraft should be retired for safety’s sake, and Pepsi-Cola Company donated it to the National Air and Space Museum. The Pepsi Skywriter is currently displayed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport.
– Travels with Phil copyrighted by Phil Konstantin –
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Photo Credits:
National Air and Space Museum
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Video Credits:
My own
Pepsi
Fair Use
KFMB-TV CBS8
Viddyoze Membership
National Air and Space Museum
Jack Strayer 1929 Travel Air D4D-MGB1977Red
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Music Credits:
Viddyoze Membership
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Links:
1. https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/travel-air-d4d/nasm_A20010091000
2. https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/snapshot/writing-words-sky
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel_Air
4. https://fastaviationdata.wordpress.com/2016/02/26/women-in-aviation-2/
5. https://airandspace.si.edu/whats-on/soar-together-air-and-space/messages-sky
6. https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/motor-vehicles-aeronautics-astronautics/item/how-do-skywriting-and-skytyping-work/
7. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/airplanes-of-the-stars-26813072/
8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mup5VOAMhE
9. https://plans.modelaircraft.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/MB11781MB1.pdf
10. https://youtu.be/5mup5VOAMhE

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