TOLEDO, Ohio — The state of Ohio debuted a new license plate twice on Thursday after the original version contained a depiction of an airplane flown by the Wright Brothers facing the wrong direction.
Gov. Mike DeWine unveiled the new plate in a morning news conference. The new tag features a wheat field, urban skyline and a child playing with a dog.
However many people on social media quickly pointed out the flaw with the plane, which was pulling a banner that said "Birthplace of Aviation" from the nose instead of the tail.
The Dayton History Museum is home to the Wright Brothers National Museum. Vice President of Museum Operations Alex Heckman said the designer isn't the first person to make this mistake.
"This happens all the time," he said. "People mistake the front of the plane for the back. That's the heart of the problem. The designer thought they were designing it so the banner was flying out the back, but it's actually the other way."
The museum is home to one of the Wright Brothers' original planes and has a similar design to the one on the license plate. Heckman said the smaller set of wings in the front is called an elevator and helped lift the plane off the ground.
The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles realized the error by midday and issued a statement and corrected design.
Last year, DeWine signed a bill that created 33 specialty license plates, but the new design marks the first update Ohio has made to its standard license plate since 2013.
According to DeWine, he and First Lady Fran DeWine both played a role in the new design.
"First of all, our goal was to reflect the beauty of Ohio," DeWine said. "We also wanted the plate to represent the diversity of Ohio in the sense of the geography of Ohio."