Adding another to our list of planes drawing a plane in the sky. On Wednesday, 6 February, a Baron G58 took to the skies off the coast of Japan near Okayama to continue the grand tradition of aircraft portraiture. The Baron spent an hour on its aerial art, drawing a four engine aircraft before landing.

Aircraft aren’t the only things drawn in the sky, hearts and Christmas trees also make for great aerial imagery.

A brief history

Aircraft portraiture has developed as GPS-based navigation and ADS-B tracking have become commonplace. Pilots have looked for ways to make gaining hours or testing new equipment and technology more exciting than just flying in circles for hours on end. In fact, one of our most tracked flights of all time was the world’s largest self-portrait by an aircraft when a Boeing 787 drew a 787 over the United States in August 2017. The Rolls Royce Trent 1000 TEN engine was undergoing ETOPS testing, so Boeing decided to make things interesting on the long flight.

Our first aircraft portrait

Back in 2016, we saw our first airplane drawn with an airplane when the pilot of Robin DR400/180 Régent D-EFHN, a prolific sky artist, took to the skies over Germany. They even signed the portrait on the return journey.