An aviation dogfight on the back of the car

Since I have the best wife ever, I bought her a new car for Valentine's Day.

This meant we had to get new license plates. The old car was in my name, and I had Airborne plates on it:

Photo from Ohio BMV.

We put the new car in her name, so that wouldn't be an option now, since you need a DD-214 to get paratrooper plates. We decided to get the "Leader in Flight" plates with the Space Shuttle and the Wright Flyer on them. They're an extra $25, but $15 of that goes to support the National Aviation Heritage Area.

Photo from Ohio BMV.

Notice that both of those plates (and all recent Ohio license plates, too) have "Birthplace of Aviation" prominently written just below the "Ohio". The plate I got even takes that one step further and proclaims Ohio "The Leader in Flight". But what about this plate:

Photo from NC DOT.

It says "First in Flight", but it's not an Ohio plate: it's from North Carolina. Technically, they're both correct: Ohio is where the Wright Brothers dreamed of, researched, designed, and planned the world's first airplane, while North Carolina was where they brought those dreams to fruition that historic December day in 1903, and where one of the most famous photographs ever was taken:

Photo from the US National Archives.

The first flight took place in North Carolina, but December 17, 1903 would be the only day the Wrights would fly there. After three more flights that day, the first plane was flipped over by the same winds that drew the Wrights to Kitty Hawk in the first place. It was damaged beyond easy repair, and the brothers returned to Dayton satisfied.

Having demonstrated that the concept was indeed possible, all further development for the next several years was done in their bicycle shop in Dayton, with the flying done at nearby Huffman Prairie. They would not be in Kitty Hawk again for almost 8 years, and that was to only test improvements to their designs that they had made in Dayton. The data they acquired there would be used for improvements once they again returned to Ohio, and that's where the first airplane manufacturing plant would be built.

This friendly rivalry resurfaced when the United States Mint created their 50-state series of quarters. North Carolina used the famous photo above and "First Flight" for the back of their quarter. Ohio one-upped them by using an image of a later-model Wright Flyer taken at Huffman Prairie plus an astronaut along with the words "Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers".

So who wins the dogfight? Ohio gets the kill because while North Carolina is where we learned it was possible to fly, Dayton is where flight was born.

See you next Wednesday!