Ohio moves to add Wright flyer to state seal amid dispute

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio is staking another public claim to the Wright brothers’ legacy amid a dispute with Connecticut over an aviator that state says flew first.

The Ohio Senate took up legislation Tuesday that would add the Wright flyer to Ohio’s state seal and coat of arms. The bill cleared the Ohio House Feb. 14.

Ohio’s 200-year-old seal was last revised in 1996, when the Scioto (sy-OH’-toh) River was added to flow between farm fields and Mount Logan.

Republican Rep. Rick Perales earlier spearheaded a resolution rejecting Connecticut’s claim that aviator Gustave Whitehead flew the “first manned, controlled flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft” on Aug. 14, 1901. That’s two years before the Wrights’ historic 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

North Carolina also disputes Connecticut’s claim.