North Carolina License Plate Slogan: First in Flight

North Carolina DMV currently offers three standard designs for private passenger and private hauler vehicles. "First in Flight" remains the main standard design, but it is not the only standard plate available.

"First in Freedom" recognizes two Revolutionary-era North Carolina milestones: May 20, 1775, associated with the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, and April 12, 1776, the date of the Halifax Resolves.

The National/State Motto plate carries "IN GOD WE TRUST" and the English translation of North Carolina's state motto, "To Be Rather Than to Seem." Because NCDMV lists it with the standard designs, it should not be described simply as a specialty plate.

On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright achieved the first successful airplane flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. North Carolina's slogan is a geographic claim: the first powered flight happened in the state, even though the Wright brothers lived and built much of their equipment in Ohio.

The "First in Flight" base debuted in 1982 with a light blue Wright Flyer graphic and won ALPCA's Plate of the Year award for that year. The plate has gone through serial and color changes, including red serials in 2007-2009 and a return to blue serials in 2009, but the slogan has stayed in use.

The current First in Flight passenger sequence dates from December 2010, while older valid First in Flight plates can still appear on vehicles.

"First in Freedom" first appeared on the 1975-1978 North Carolina passenger base. It was tied to the U.S. Bicentennial period, but the plate itself ran beyond 1975 and was the first North Carolina base to be revalidated with stickers.

The slogan returned as an alternative standard design on July 1, 2015. That modern plate includes the dates May 20, 1775 and April 12, 1776, connecting the slogan to the Mecklenburg Declaration tradition and the Halifax Resolves.

The Mecklenburg Declaration has long been debated by historians, but the dates are part of North Carolina's official identity and also appear on the state flag.

North Carolina's earliest plate slogan was a highway-safety message rather than a state identity slogan. "DRIVE SAFELY" appeared on some 1953 and 1954 plates where the state abbreviation was used instead of the full state name.

The phrase became the regular slogan from 1956 through 1963. In 1956-1962 it appeared at the top; in 1963 it moved to the bottom.

After 1963, North Carolina standard passenger plates went without a slogan until "FIRST IN FREEDOM" appeared on the 1975-1978 base.

North Carolina's slogan history has three layers: the mid-century safety message, the Revolutionary "First in Freedom" claim, and the aviation slogan that became the state's most familiar plate identity.