35,000 plates were printed with the embarrassing mistake. Photo / Jessie Balmert via AP
35,000 plates were printed with the embarrassing mistake. Photo / Jessie Balmert via AP
The backward Wright Flyer that was at the center of an embarrassing license plate mistake in Ohio last year flew through the approval process with little to no discussion, records show.
Designers at the Ohio Department of Public Safety fussed over such issues as color saturation, cantering and image placement. The Ohio State Highway Patrol tested the license plate's lettering for readability.
Meanwhile, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and his wife, Fran, controlled the imagery's overall messaging — from its rural and urban themes, to its nods to Ohio's water resources and history, to the breed of the plate's playful dog.
The flipped around plane — dragging a "Birthplace of Aviation" banner from its front, rather than its back end — appeared to be there from the outset, according to emails and images from the 15-month design process provided to The Associated Press through a public records request. Greg Wyatt, the department's visual communications manager, declined an AP request for comment on the plate or the design process.
The Wright brothers' historic aircraft was intended as a proud symbol of Ohio's place in aviation history, but it turned into a punchline in October, after the new plate design was unveiled and people immediately noticed it was oriented incorrectly.
"Y'all leave Ohio alone," tweeted the Department of Transportation in North Carolina, where the Ohio-bred Wright brothers took their famous first flight in 1903. "They wouldn't know. They weren't there."
The Wright brothers' flying machine at Kitty Hawke. Photo / John T. Daniels via AP
The flyer is unusually shaped by modern aircraft standards, with what could be mistaken for a tail, or rudder, at the front and its big wings at the rear.
The mistake was fixed immediately once it was discovered. The new "Sunrise in Ohio" plate became available to the public last week. It is the state's 76th new plate and its first since 2013.
The plane's orientation wasn't discussed in any unredacted portions of the emails provided. Its only mention was in the context of a problem on an earlier plate.
The 2009 "Beautiful Ohio" plate on which the faulty one was loosely based used clipart of the plane that wasn't approved for commercial use, according to the emails. Lawyers worked the issue out, though their specific advice was redacted. The Republican governor conceded when unveiling the plate this fall that he and the first lady "probably drove them crazy" at the Public Safety Department with all their input.
In a 17 January email, Wyatt listed the plane as the governor's first priority.
At the plate's release, DeWine said he and Fran had a "particular interest" in the Wright brothers. That's because the famous brothers' early flight tests took place in their county, at Huffman Prairie less than 32 kilometres from the DeWines' Cedarville home.
Birthplace of Aviation
Since 2003 Ohio has been recognised as the "birthplace of aviation" as the home state of inventors Wilbur and Orville Wright. It seems the natural home of the US's National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton.
The tourism slogan has been proudly placed on everything from T-shirts to licence plates. However, there are some places that would contend for the title.
The Richard Pearse memorial in Waitohi. Photo / NZ History, CC
North Carolina also had a good claim as the site of Kitty Hawk, where the inventors logged the first powered flight on 17 December 1903. The place of the first 'heavier than air, powered flight' might give them an equal claim as the launch site of aviation.
The US Congress eventually weighed in on the matter, awarding the title to the Ohioans.
However, the States-centric view of aeronautical history failed to acknowledge other claims from around the world.
New Zealand's Ministry of Culture cites Kiwi Richard Pearse as the possible first flyer.
The farmer from Waitohi South Canterbury was building a powered flying machine at a very similar time to the Wrights' invention.
He logs his first flight on 31 March 1903 - over half a year before the Wrights got off the ground.
While Balloons had been used to carry passengers since the 1700s, NASA recognises English inventor George Cayley as creating the first winged glider to carry a human passenger in 1849.
Of course, Cayley wasn't daft enough to go up in his own potentially dangerous invention.
The first pilot was a ten-year-old boy whose name is lost in history.
