Ohio designates the 1905 Wright Flyer III as its official state airplane, celebrating its role in aviation history.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio has adopted the 1905 Wright Flyer III as its official state airplane.
The world’s first practical fixed-wing aircraft, considered Orville and Wilbur Wright’s greatest accomplishment, completed its groundbreaking sustained flight in Huffman Prairie, an Ohio cow pasture near Dayton.
Amanda Wright Lane, a grandniece of the pioneering Ohio siblings, likened the 1905 plane to “their Tesla,” emphasizing its significance as the starting point for human flight to Mars.
She pointed out that NASA’s experimental Martian helicopter, Ingenuity, achieved success through flight techniques reminiscent of those pioneered by the Wright brothers. Consequently, the space agency christened its landing area on Mars as “Wright Brothers Field.”
“Present-day Ohio engineering ingenuity was a part of that Ingenuity mission. Why wouldn’t we adopt the Wright Flyer III as an inspiring symbol of the genesis of human flight?” she said. “Ohioans lessened the distances between world peoples 125 years ago, and currently, Ohioans are lessening the distances in space.”
The Wright Flyer III featured a host of improvements to the Wright Flyer I, the plane in which the Wrights pioneered powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on Dec. 17, 1903. Those included a larger rudder, a vertical stabilizer relocated rearward and separate yaw and roll controls, the Ohio History Connection’s Kevin Boehner told the committee.
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed its new state designation into law Wednesday. The plane, designated an historic landmark, can be seen now at Dayton’s Carillion Historical Park.
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