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It is a fact that the first flight took place in NC. Orville was born in OH, Wilbur was born in IN. Maybe the problem isn't that NC shouldn't be the birthplace of aviation, but that OH and NC should be sharing the birthplace title with IN.
Although the Wrights solved a critical problem, the problem of control, and most of their work was done in Ohio, I think Glenn Curtiss, a New Yorker, did more for aviation in the US, in the early years after the first flight, than anybody else.
It's really a shame that when Curtiss approached the Wrights with his engine, before he ever got involved in building airplanes, they flatly turned him down.
Their biggest (technical) shortcoming was their engine, and that's what Curtiss did best at that time.
What a team they could have made.
If the Wrights had not been so secretive, and greedy, the US would probably have lead the world in aviation instead of being a backwater until after WWI.
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