Do promotional flight routes have a historical precedent? Right now, a Dreamliner is flying a rather strange path over the USA (see below). The plane took off from Boeing Field airport near Seattle, and is 'drawing' a virtual copy of itself on the map of the USA before flying back home.

As flight trackers are a relatively recent phenomenon, I was wondering: is this the first time something like this ever happens, or is this a tradition in aviation which I'm not aware of?





Permalink for the flight.
It's not the first time they do it. Back in 2012 they wrote 787 and the Boeing logo: 



Planes have been drawn before by others as well.