By Anna Guido
Enquirer contributor

Amanda Wright Lane, one of the Wright Brothers' descendants, shows first-graders at Finneytown's Brent Elementary a picture of the brothers and one of their early gliders Thursday. (Michael Snyder photo)

FINNEYTOWN - "Uncle Orv" and "Uncle Will" is how the world-famous Wright Brothers were referred to this week at an exclusive presentation at Brent Elementary.

Amanda Wright Lane of Wyoming, whose great-grandfather, Lorin, was a brother of the famous inventors, shared stories, artifacts and photos with 26 first-graders in Brent's gifted program and teacher Sarah Ginn.

"Today you became inventors yourselves when you were given a piece of paper and told to make a paper airplane," Ginn told her class before introducing Lane.

Lane quickly captured the attention of the young audience by twisting a toy propeller into the air and letting it twirl to the floor to illustrate how her great uncles first became interested in flight.

A similar rotary wing toy was a gift from their father upon his return home from a trip, Lane said. They played with the toy until it broke, then tried to build another of their own.

That childhood experience, Lane said, is what led to the Wright Brothers' invention of the world's first machine-powered plane, which took flight Dec. 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, N.C.

Lane, 50, and her brother, Stephen, 46, of Oakbrook are the only local descendants of the Wright Brothers, who grew up in Dayton.

Thursday's presentation at Brent Elementary followed a special unit of study, which included reading a book about the Wright Brothers and constructing a timeline about their lives.

Lane explained, in first-grader terms, what made the Wright Brothers successful in their quest to fly. She talked about safety, control, pitch and yaw, and asked students why the Wright Brothers tested their glider on a beach.

Hands shot up and correct answers followed.

"Because the beach has a soft ground for landing."

"Because there's lots of wind on the beach."

Lane also passed around a shred of fabric and fragment of wood from the Wright Brothers' "first flight" plane. The items were enclosed in glass.

In closing, she told a story about Orville, the younger of the two brothers who lived the longer.

"He was a practical joker," Lane said. "When my dad was 10, he was having lunch with Uncle Orv and a cockroach came running out from under my dad's bowl of soup."

The cockroach wasn't real, Lane said. Orville had made it from tin and tied it to a string.

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