Aeroplane Jelly was created in 1927 when tram conductor Adolphus Herbert Frederick Norman (Bert) Appleroth created jelly crystals using gelatine and sugar in his bath tub and sold these jelly crystals door-to-door, using his tram route to transport him around Sydney.
Overwhelmed by the popularity of his jelly crystals, he quit his job as tram conductor in 1917, rented out a shed in Paddington and began a life devoted to jelly. Appleroth was a keen aviation fan, and in 1926, when aeroplanes epitomised all that was modern and exciting, he launched his little jelly business under the name Aeroplane Jelly with Albert Francis Lenertz (1891–1943). Lenertz had a wholesale grocery and wines-and-spirits business in Sydney, initially located in Sussex Street but moved to Alice Street, Newtown in 1927.
The pair used a Tiger Moth plane to make deliveries to rural areas in 1934, and their advertising campaigns and publicity stunts, like dropping jelly from aeroplanes across Sydney’s beaches, made the jelly a national icon, like Holden cars and Vegemite.
The Aeroplane Jelly factory was relocated to West Ryde where it stayed for 33 years. In 1995 McCormick Foods Australia bought Aeroplane Jelly and in 2006, it moved production to Clayton, Victoria to centralise its manufacturing operations in Victoria.
The logo of a box aeroplane flying across the Sydney skyline was introduced in 1936. The Aeroplane Jelly jingle was composed by Lenertz, along with the talented pianist of the Musician's Lodge, Les Woods. The jingle was a re-working of Lenertz's earlier political jingle in tribute to Australian Prime Minister William Morris Hughes. A minor controversy occurred in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1988 over authorship of the song, with claims made on behalf of vaudeville actress Peggy Thorne, Les Woods, and New Zealander Bill White.
The jingle was first sung in the early 1930s on the Goodie Reeve radio show on 2KY by three-year-old Jennifer Paykel. As the commercials were broadcast live, Paykel was taken to the studio two or three times per week to sing the jingle. Paykel's mother did not renew her contract because, according to Paykel, "Shirley Temple was all the rage and my mother was terrified I might become a public figure like her".
The logo of a box aeroplane flying across the Sydney skyline was introduced in 1936. Aeroplane Jelly held a talent quest in Sydney to find a new singer and the competition was won by five-year-old Joy King who beat 200 other children to become the official voice of Aeroplane Jelly. King recorded the jingle in 1937. This rendition is still used in today's advertising.

A finalist in the same talent quest was seven-year-old Tommy Dawes, who Appleroth chose to appear as the "whistling boy" on the front of the jelly packets and advertising. According to Dawes, as a finalist he received 10 guineas and an onyx inkstand, but has received no other compensation for the use of his image or his recorded version of the jingle. Dawes said, "It was absolutely fantastic; I loved seeing my picture and singing the song and all my friends were very impressed... I have never wanted any money from it... I just like telling everyone that I'm the Aeroplane Jelly boy."