How Airplanes Fly Those Giant Banner Ads — It's More Dangerous Than You Think

If you've ever spent time on a US beach during the summer, you've probably noticed a parade of airplanes towing giant banners advertising companies like Dunkin' Donuts or Geico. We spent a couple of days with the men and women who get these banners flying, and it's no easy task.

You might think the airplanes simply take off with the banners attached. Alas, that is incorrect. It takes a challenging and risky maneuver to attach the banner to the airplane before it flies. We spent a couple of days with Banner Tow USA, a company that operates out of the Westerly State Airport in Rhode Island to find out what goes into flying these giant billboards in the sky.

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[linden]

"Expletive! I can't believe I missed it!"

[tthatggguy]

I worked at a banner towing company and once the bottom pole (which is a weighted carbon pipe with cement or metal and weighs 20 pounds) had fallen 1000+ ft and went about 6 ft through 2 ft of cement. And then the company 2 weeks after I quit had a plane in disrepair, the fuel gauges did not work nor did the tac. The pilot (whom was late teens) had ran out of fuel and crash landed killing a woman. That company is still running to this day

[XGaming]

How do they land safely? Do they release the rope and let the banner float to the ground?

[kallelaakso]

People leave from city for a while to go to a beach and relax. Free from ads. Then someone flies a loud plane with a giant ad right above your face

[vivalavega]

Not sure I've ever looked at a billboard and said, "oh! there's the lawyer I'm looking for"

[ComplyDM]

Feel like there is an easier way to do this

[JHA]

If I see your name on a banner ad, I probably will remember never to call you.

[matt]

I saw a Subway and an Amazon ad for Prime day :P

[euphobic]

Advertisements, just what I'm missing from my relaxing day at the beach...

[angelsbannerplanes]

It’s easy to just pick a banner up and fly it in the sky and fly places like Sea Isle City, Ocean City, Atlantic City, and at the woodbine airport.

[dorkmax]

I always assumed they took off with them in tow

[adriatical]

Woah that's a quite low attitude.

[ryanm.]

I love nothing more than enjoying a nice relaxing day at the beach, sun bathing and swimming only to be greeted by a MASSIVE. FUCKING. ADVERT. IN. THE. FUCKING. SKY.

[christopherstark]

The airport down the road from my brother does something like this. I remember being down there one time and seeing a small plane take a steep nose dive and pulling up before seeing it gain altitude again with a banner behind it. I remember it being kind of fascinating once we realized what it had done. This just explains it in more detail with some cool camera perspectives.

[irwin]

they should just do a whole bunch of drones do this and just have it positioned steady in a beach

[michaelalando]

Didn't realize how expletively tricky amazing and interesting this work is. I'm working on an animation featuring a banner tow plane and curiosity drew me to find out.

[rembpilot]

A friend of mine used to fly an AG-CAT towing a huge text banner... one day on the pickup the banner broke in half, it was pretty fun to see the messed up message.

[GibsonArtola]

Would have been nice to include some pricing information on the services offered....no wait, that might be some type of 'business-related' video.

[nybxezc]

Watched the operation of a banner towing company and found out it's one of the most dangerous jobs anyone can do. Very short life expectancy.

[supersub]

Great information on how this is done. I have seen planes tow banners at many ballparks because I am a baseball fan and aviation buff and always wondered how pilots set up and prepare how banners are towed from aircraft. Thanks