Skywriting Your Name in History: Suzanne Asbury-Oliver – National Air and Space Museum

WhenSuzanne Asbury-Olivers father received a Fathers Day gift of a ride in a sailplane, he naturally took Suzanne with him. Upon landing, her father proclaimed his love of flying and enthusiastically asked when Suzanne could begin takinglessons. She began flying gliders at 14, and first soloed when she wasjust 15 years old. By the time she was 18,Asbury-Oliverhad her powered-aircraft instrument rating, commercial certificate, flight instructor,and instrument-flight instructor certificates, as well as a multiengine rating. She had become an aviation professional.

Asbury-Oliversearched for a way she could do what she loved, fly, and make a living. At the start of the1980sthe major airlines were in trouble and there was little opportunity for public aviation careers. When she saw an advertisement put out by Pepsi-Cola for a skywriter,Asbury-Oliverfirst thought it would be impossible to get the job. But she realized there probably wasnt anyone more qualified,so sheinquired about the position and was promptly putina plane with the current Pepsi skywriter.Asbury-Oliverwas almost instantly successful and worked withpilot JackStrayer for a year before heretiredand she became head skywriter. Suzanne and her husband, Steven Oliver, became Americas only husband and wife professional skywriting and aerobatic team.

Skywriting is not only a time-honored advertising tradition, but one of the most exciting and influential forms of advertisement.Though it is rarely used today, skywritingisvery impressive and effective.The Pepsi-Cola company has used the skywriting advertising technique since 1932, and it is perhaps the only company that still employs skywriting today.

Asbury-Oliver has been skywriting messages across the skies above the United States and Canada for Pepsi since 1980. From the open cockpit of the famous 1929 Travel Air biplane, the PepsiSkyWriter, Oliver created thousands of letters 3,048 meters (10,000 feet) above the earth for Pepsi Cola. While she has logged over 5,500 flying hours, her personal favoritesarethose spent inthe TravelAir.She remarked about the planethat,I fell in love with the open cockpit flying. Most pilots stare out at the sky through two layers of dirty Plexiglas, but in the open cockpit plane, there is just the sky, the wind, the cold, the ground, and me. Touring North America from coast to coast,Asbury-Oliver, now flying a modified De Havilland Chipmunk, skywrites over 500 messages in more than 150 locations each year. She remains the only professional female skywriter in the world.

This content was migrated from an earlier online exhibit,Women in Aviation and Space History, which shared the stories of the women featured in theMuseum inearly 2000s.

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Skywriting Your Name in History: Suzanne Asbury-Oliver - National Air and Space Museum