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Amanda Wright Lane, the great grandniece of the Wright brothers, is the most public face of the Wright family. She wears the Wright brothers’ legacy on her sleeve.
At dress-up affairs, she pins a tiny sterling Wright Flyer to her shoulder. When she’s in jeans, she sports a Wright brothers national park pin. Then there’s her dandelion-yellow Volkswagen Beetle with its “Wil n Orv” license plates.
Amanda has traveled across the country and around the world — meeting with members of Congress, foreign dignitaries, generals, high-powered executives, astronauts and, of course, pilots and third-graders. And she connects in words that border on poetry, recounting the story of two unpretentious, geeky bachelors who changed the world.
A “non-science girl who fell far from the family tree,” Lane has immersed herself in all things flight and space related. She speaks knowledgeably about wing warping and Apollo missions, although she was afraid to fly until the day her father died, when the fear, she said, inexplicably lifted.
When Lane testified before Congress in 2003 in support of establishing a national aviation heritage area in Dayton, committee members listened to her with an intensity that’s uncommon when communities trot out their advocates. U.S. Rep. Mike Turner remembers the time when he introduced Lane to Congressman Lacy Clay Jr., and Amanda launched into an anecdote about her uncles. Clay was so enthralled by Lane’s storytelling and her command of details that he asked, “Were you there?”
Amanda has made special appearances or been a featured speaker at the Paris and Farnborough Air Shows, EAA AirVenture, National Aviation Heritage Alliance, aviation exhibits and shows in Italy, Germany, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Brazil, and from coast to coast.
In 2008 she received the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ public service award, an honor that in 1990 went to Walter Cronkite.
We are honored to have Amanda Wright Lane as our SWPC banquet speaker.
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