Ohio Flip-Flops And Flies Wright Correctly

Ohio’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles did a quick 180 after failing its creative license test on Thursday with a physics-defying image of the Wright Flyer. The state’s motto is “Birthplace of Aviation” in reference to the Wright brothers’ Dayton headquarters for development of what is generally accepted to be the first powered aircraft. The BMV’s new design for license plates incorporates a banner-towing version of the aircraft that first took flight in North Carolina in 1903. Shortly after the unveiling of the new design, Ohioans flooded social media to point out that the rendering of the Wright’s ash, spruce and linen world-changing invention was depicted backward and was therefore pushing the banner.

The BMV wasted little time in flipping the image and announced a clean-sheet redesign the same day. “We are aware that the plane on the new Ohio license plate unveiled this morning was oriented in the wrong direction. We regret this mistake and have fixed the image,” the BMV tweeted, with an accompanying image of the fixed plate. What’s not clear is if any of the 35,000 plates already produced by inmates at the Lebanon correctional facility had made it to any vehicle’s back bumper. Those in the state’s possession will be recycled.