Ohio to get new license plates featuring Wright Flyer, farm scene

Oct. 21—Ohioans will get a new standard license plate with new vehicle registrations that features a Wright Flyer soaring over a farm scene with skyscrapers in the background.

Gov. Mike DeWine, First Lady Fran DeWine and Bureau of Motor Vehicles Registrar Charles Norman unveiled the new "Sunrise in Ohio" plate Thursday at the Ohio Department of Public Safety headquarters in Columbus. The plates are available starting Dec. 29.

"This is one of the fun things a governor gets to do," Gov. DeWine said.

All design was done in-house at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Norman said. Greg Wyatt, visual communications manager for the Department of Public Safety, designed the plate with heavy input from the DeWines.

"First of all, our goal was to reflect the beauty of Ohio," Gov. DeWine said. "Very difficult to do that in a license plate."

The plate shows a composite Ohio city skyline, green hills, a waterway, a broad wheat field, and a tree with a girl on a swing. The background is a yellow sunrise. Across the top a Wright Flyer trails a "Birthplace of Aviation" banner — although the banner is actually on the front of the early airplane.

"We went through a lot of different variations of this before we got exactly what we wanted," Fran DeWine said.

Vehicle owners receiving a plate for the first time won't pay any more for the new plate than for the old one, Norman said. Currently a standard Ohio plate costs $34.50.

People renewing their registration who wish to switch to the new plate will pay a $7 "new metal fee," Norman said. Otherwise they can just get a new sticker for their existing plates.

"Customers have the option to keep their plate, to transfer their plate," he said. Like today, they can get just one plate or get a second for an additional $1.25, Norman said.

Ohio has issued new standard plates four times in the past 20 years, under four different governors: the "Bicentennial" plate in 2001, "Sunburst" in 2003, "Beautiful Ohio" in 2009 and "Ohio Pride" in 2013.

All those are still in circulation, plus 300 specialty plate designs, Norman said. A "cleaner, streamlined design" for current specialty plates will be rolled out along with the new standard plate, he said.

Ohio issues about 2.1 million new plates a year for 13 million motor vehicles, Norman said. Older plates are expected to remain in use for a long time, he said.

Previous redesigns often took a year and a half, but this one moved from a final design in April to production at the Lebanon Correctional Facility in mid-October, Norman said.

The design was tested by law enforcement agencies to make sure it's legible at a distance and readable by technology, he said.

The state slowed production on the previous design and expects to have about 40,000 left when the changeover occurs, Norman said. Those plates will be recycled, he said.