The home of GE Aviation is located in the vicinity of Cininnati, Ohio. As the Flying Pig is a symbol of this modern city, it confuses a lot of people who are not familiar with the history of this area.
Let’s start with the pig – In the 19th century Cincinnati was famous for being the number 1 place for pork processing in the North America. This fact gave it the nickname “Porkopolis”. During the further development of the area, the scope of this activity has been reduced and currently there are other cities in US that have much more meat industry compared to Cincinnati.
In the 20th century (or, to be more precise, in 1954) General Electric opened its plant in Evendale located north of Cincinnati. This fact had a great impact on the the city mascot. GE started developement and production of jet engines, and this was the time when the pig earned its wings. Now you can connect the dots – Cincinnati is the only place where pigs fly.
There are various initiatives to promote Cincinnati’s symbol all over the world. One of the them is the “Flying Pig Marathon” held on the streest of Cincinnati.
More on the subject can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Cincinnati
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=681
http://www.geae.com/aboutgeae/history.html
picture source – http://www.nava.org/
