[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14417]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   OHIO IS THE BIRTHPLACE OF AVIATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hobson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOBSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise in reaction to my colleague and 
friend, the gentleman from North Carolina's public objection to Dayton, 
Ohio being known as the birthplace of aviation.
  No one disputes the fact that Kittyhawk in North Carolina was the 
site of the first successful controlled power flight in history. 
However, Dayton, Ohio's claim to be the birthplace of aviation is based 
upon much more than just the first limited flight.
  As a new historical work on the lives of the Wright brothers states, 
``The four short flights in North Carolina showed that their math was 
close enough; Heavier than air flight was possible. The practicality of 
the Wright Flyer was achieved in 1904 and 1905 in a little-known place 
of great consequence, Huffman Prairie, an 85-acre cow pasture 10 miles 
east of Dayton.
  Huffman Prairie Flying Field, which is in the Seventh Congressional 
District, which just happens to be my district, is located on the 
grounds of Wright Patterson Air Force Base. The flying field, which is 
undergoing a restoration to its 1905 appearance, has recently been 
opened to the general public, complete with a new interpretive center 
so visitors can understand the importance of the early flight testing 
and aircraft development that occurred there.
  Even the press at the time did not grasp the significance of what had 
occurred at Kitty Hawk. It took several years of additional flights, I 
might say at Huffman Prairie, before the public finally acknowledged 
that the Wright brothers had invented a workable aircraft. If the 
Wright Brothers had not continued their history-altering work in Ohio, 
it is quite possible that the North Carolina exploits would have been 
lost in history.
  As I have said before, North Carolina can always claim the location 
of the first flight by the Wright brothers, but it is their hometown 
that saw the laborious construction and endless testing that was 
required to allow it to take to the sky and mature as a reliable form 
of transportation that we all now enjoy.
  North Carolina has the sand dunes where the first flight occurred, 
but Dayton, Ohio has the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical 
Park, encompassing the Wright Cycle Shop, Huffman Prairie Flying Field, 
the John W. Berry, Sr. Wright Brothers Aviation Center, and the Paul 
Laurence Dunbar State Memorial.
  Dayton also has the National Aviation Hall of Fame, Wright Patterson 
Air Force Base, the U.S. Air Force Museum, and the final resting place 
of the Wright brothers. It is based upon all of these important sites 
and the local life experiences of the Wright brothers that Dayton 
should be known as the ``birthplace of aviation.''
  As an Ohioan, I am proud to reside in the same State as the two 
Wright brothers whose invention changed the world; and more 
importantly, the fact that they were also in Ohio's Seventh 
Congressional District, which I now represent.

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