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A Century of Flight
Aired December 17, 2003 - 13:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining me, who is watching this with as much interest as anybody here, Amanda Wright Lane, who is the great grand niece of Orville and Wilbur Wright, and who has spent the past year representing the Wright family all over this country.
And is it disappointing to see that? Or that's what everybody expected in a sense, I suppose?
AMANDA WRIGHT LANE, WRIGHT BROTHERS DESCENDANT: Well, actually, if you know wright history, they actually attempted this on December 14th and Uncle Will crashed. So this was appropriate today. They took a day to repair the airplane on the 15th. The 16th, the weather was so bad so they couldn't try again. So the 17th was it. And they pretty much told each other if they didn't fly on the 17th, they were going to give it up and go home for Christmas.
O'BRIEN: And that would have been it for that year. That would have been the end of the season, if you will. And they would have come back. Or maybe who knows what would have happened. History could have written another story entirely.
LANE: Exactly, yes.
O'BRIEN: What -- when you hear those engines, when you see it roll down that rail, what goes through your mind as a member of the clan?
LANE: I right away thought about that day. Witnesses that day in 1903 said that Uncle Orv and Uncle Will moved away from the plane just before they were about to fly. That was not unusual for them to have a conversation. But on this particular conversation, they grasped each other's hand, and it wasn't a handshake, they held on a bit. And I always wondered what they said to each other at that moment. If they knew -- maybe they didn't know, maybe they were talking about their Christmas list. You never know. But I just would have loved have known what they said to each other at that moment.
O'BRIEN: Yes, boy, that would be a piece of history we'd all like to know. What is the lesson of your great great uncles? What are we to learn? What should we take away? Is it persistence? Is it something about ingenuity that is uniquely American?
LANE: I think for the Wright brothers, there are two important things, they never gave up, they learned as much from their mistakes as their successes. That was very important to them, and it's a great American story, men of modest means change the world forever.
O'BRIEN: And recreating it, do you think it's a worthy effort? Is it a stunt? What does it do for you?
LANE: Oh, absolutely. The recreation was absolutely worthwhile. It gave America a look back 100 years, and it shows us that we can go as far as our imaginations will take us.
O'BRIEN: All right, Amanda Wright Lane, thank you so much for being with us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 17, 2003 - 13:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining me, who is watching this with as much interest as anybody here, Amanda Wright Lane, who is the great grand niece of Orville and Wilbur Wright, and who has spent the past year representing the Wright family all over this country.
And is it disappointing to see that? Or that's what everybody expected in a sense, I suppose?
AMANDA WRIGHT LANE, WRIGHT BROTHERS DESCENDANT: Well, actually, if you know wright history, they actually attempted this on December 14th and Uncle Will crashed. So this was appropriate today. They took a day to repair the airplane on the 15th. The 16th, the weather was so bad so they couldn't try again. So the 17th was it. And they pretty much told each other if they didn't fly on the 17th, they were going to give it up and go home for Christmas.
O'BRIEN: And that would have been it for that year. That would have been the end of the season, if you will. And they would have come back. Or maybe who knows what would have happened. History could have written another story entirely.
LANE: Exactly, yes.
O'BRIEN: What -- when you hear those engines, when you see it roll down that rail, what goes through your mind as a member of the clan?
LANE: I right away thought about that day. Witnesses that day in 1903 said that Uncle Orv and Uncle Will moved away from the plane just before they were about to fly. That was not unusual for them to have a conversation. But on this particular conversation, they grasped each other's hand, and it wasn't a handshake, they held on a bit. And I always wondered what they said to each other at that moment. If they knew -- maybe they didn't know, maybe they were talking about their Christmas list. You never know. But I just would have loved have known what they said to each other at that moment.
O'BRIEN: Yes, boy, that would be a piece of history we'd all like to know. What is the lesson of your great great uncles? What are we to learn? What should we take away? Is it persistence? Is it something about ingenuity that is uniquely American?
LANE: I think for the Wright brothers, there are two important things, they never gave up, they learned as much from their mistakes as their successes. That was very important to them, and it's a great American story, men of modest means change the world forever.
O'BRIEN: And recreating it, do you think it's a worthy effort? Is it a stunt? What does it do for you?
LANE: Oh, absolutely. The recreation was absolutely worthwhile. It gave America a look back 100 years, and it shows us that we can go as far as our imaginations will take us.
O'BRIEN: All right, Amanda Wright Lane, thank you so much for being with us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
