North Carolina and Ohio have long feud about which state deserves credit for the first airplane flight.
Orville and Wilbur Wright, who made that first historic flight, were from Ohio and built that first plane at their shop in Dayton, Ohio, but the plane flew for the first time at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
North Carolina got a big boost in its claim of being “First in Flight” when Ohio this week unveiled a new license plate with the Wright brothers’ plane trailing a banner that reads, “Ohio Birthplace of Aviation.”
The problem is that on that license plate the Wright Brothers’ famous plane is flying backwards. Flying forwards was a remarkable and world changing event, flying the plane backwards would have been truly miraculous.
It seems that whoever designed the license plate for the state of Ohio didn’t know much about the Wright Brothers first flight. If they had taken a trip to Kitty Hawk, to bone up on how that plane actually flew, it would have saved the state of Ohio a lot of embarrassment.
The Wright Brothers’ plane had the elevators in front, so what looks like it should be the tail of the plane is actually the front of the plane. Instead of having the 12-horsepower motor turning a propellor on the front of the plane, the propellor was behind the wings pushing the plane rather than pulling the plane.
This unusual set up evidently confused the folks in Ohio and they have the elevators at the rear of the plane where they are in most planes today.
Fortunately, for the state of Ohio the embarrassing mistake was discovered before the license plate actually went into production and thousands of Ohioans were driving around with the license plate on their vehicles.
But there is no doubt that Orville Wright piloted the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on Dec. 17, 1903. Wilbur Wright had the record for the longest flight of the day at 852 feet and stayed in the air for a remarkable 59 seconds.
Perhaps the plane is flying away from Ohio!
stupid is as stupid does …
Too bad that the illustration shows the aircraft in the correct orientation. The original is available online.
Thanks. I replaced it with the right wrong one.
But technically, aren’t they both Wright?
Wong is wight.
Ohio’s plate further clouds the issue by replacing the wind swept beach at Kitty Hawk with something resembling a wheat field and high rises the “backwards” flying play is about to run into
I guess Ohio was tired of their previous motto: “Flat, boring and completely forgettable”.
Not that any part of this ‘dispute’ is going to effect anyone’s life in any tangible way. Other fish to fry.
In Dayton, Ohio the Wright Brothers invented the concept and practical implementation of simultaneous yaw, pitch, and roll control, built the first flight simulator, fixed errors in the known lift questions, invented the concept and math for calculating a wing’s drag, designed and built the first working propeller capable of flight, designed and built the first engine with the power to weight ratio for practical flight, and even added aeronautical seat belts.
NC contributed wind and sand for a few months.
Surely NC has something invented and built inside the state they could brag about instead of taking credit for the work of people just visiting the state?