OHIO — Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, signed Senate Bill 24 into law on Wednesday, making the 1905 Wright Flyer III the official state airplane.
The aircraft is the only airplane in the country to be designated a National Historic Landmark.
The bill was introduced by Sen. Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, and Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, in 2023. In March, the Ohio House approved of the bill 85-0. The Ohio Senate approved the bill in February.
Lawmakers said making the state plane would recognize the Wright Brothers, who grew up in Dayton and were aviation pioneers. The 1905 aircraft set flight duration and distance records, flying 39 minutes and 24 seconds on Oct. 5, 1905.
Described as Orville and Wilbur Wright's crowning achievement, the world's first practical fixed-wing aircraft made its seminal sustained flight in an Ohio cow pasture called Huffman Prairie, outside Dayton.
A grandniece to the pioneering Ohio brothers, Amanda Wright Lane, testified in February that the 1905 plane was “their Tesla,” and represented the beginning of a human flight plan to Mars.
Wright Lane noted that NASA's experimental Martian helicopter, Ingenuity, succeeded using what officials called Wright-like flights. The space agency subsequently named its air strip on Mars “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.
"The Wright brothers significantly contributed to Ohio’s rich history and altered how the world views transportation," said Huffman in a previous statement. "This monumental achievement is already recognized nationally, and the technology they developed here is worthy of statewide recognition."
The plane has been restored and is currently on display at the Wright Brothers Aviation Center in Dayton.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
