COLUMBUS, Ohio—The Ohio Senate stood with historians and scholars on Wednesday, Dec. 9, in passing a state resolution in which Ohio repudiates Connecticut for claiming the Wright brothers were not the first to fly.
Senators unanimously passed House Concurrent Resolution 8 (HCR 8), a measure that defends Ohio’s distinction as the “birthplace of aviation” and repudiates a claim made by state lawmakers in Connecticut who argued that their state deserved the title.
Ohio Rep. Rick Perales, R-Beavercreek, sponsored HCR 8 in response to a Connecticut bill, signed into law by Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy in 2013, that claimed Gustave Whitehead, not Ohio brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright, was first to make a successful flight in a powered, heavier-than-air machine.
Eminent historians have repeatedly discredited the claim over several decades, citing a lack of any credible evidence to support it, officials with the National Aviation Heritage Alliance in Dayton noted.
Perales sponsored the resolution in March to preserve Ohio’s aviation heritage and further secure the Wright brothers’ legacy. The Ohio House passed it in May. National Aviation Heritage Alliance representatives testified in favor of the measure.
Perales said defending Ohio’s aviation heritage isn’t a trivial issue for a state in which aerospace and defense is an important industry.
“As chairman of the Ohio Aerospace and Aviation Technology Committee (OAATC), I see this bill as part of the larger picture,” Perales said following the Senate vote. “The OAATC is tasked with developing a comprehensive, strategic aerospace plan for the state, and I believe that the foundation of that plan has to include showing the country and the world that Ohioans have the ingenuity and persistence to solve problems in a big way.”
“The Wright Brothers, with arguably the most significant technological contribution of the 20th Century, laid the groundwork for the entire aerospace and aviation industry, and recognition of the invention of flight will be an essential component of the full package for the state,” he added.
Actually both States are wrong if Definition of Flight mean Taking off under own Power in a machine heavier than Air.
The Wright Brothers where able to get with the help of a sling shot , downhill somehow in the Air.
SANTOS DUMON really deserves that Title since he took off under own Power , having 3 times a better Power to weight Ratio than the Wright Brothers Flown several hundert feet and Landed.
So this Title goes either to Brasil where he was Living at the time or to France where he was born.
The Montgofier brothers demonstrated manned flight in the 1780’s. Both heavier than air and lighter than air free flight drones had been experimented with for some time prior to that, including those by that other Frenchman, da Vinci back in late 1400’s.
Controlled, powered, manned heavier than air was attempted and demonstrated by a number of people at about the same time. Generally the Wrights are attributed as being the first, but there were others that were close. This near simultaneity has fanned the fires of controversy for over a century now!
I am waiting for Florida to legislate the acceleration of gravity to a new, lower level. This would make space launch so much easier.
I sleep better at night knowing our elected representatives are spending their time and OUR money on such worthwhile pursuits.
Sounds like this ought to be a fight between North Carolina and Connecticut over the First in Flight label for their license plates. Whitehead may have been first to fly but if so that didn’t make CT the birthplace of aviation because it bore no aviation.
Ohio, OTOH, clearly can lay claim th the title of birthplace of aviation.
Think of it this way, had the Brothers Wright stuck with bicycles, would there have been a Curtis Whitehead corporation? The Wright’s clearly inspired a world, despite their low profiles.