Ken Lane; Lindbergh Associate
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MIAMI — Ken Lane, an aviation pioneer who designed and built the engine for Charles Lindbergh’s famed Spirit of St. Louis, died Thursday. He was 89.
A private service is scheduled for today and Lane will be buried at sea Tuesday.
In 1923, Lane became chief engineer for Wright Aeronautics Corp., operated by Orville Wright, said Alfred Ponzol, a friend of Lane’s. Later that year Lane designed the Wright Apache that established world altitude records for land and sea planes. Lane built the airplane engine for Lindbergh’s historic transatlantic flight in 1927.
Born June 18, 1896, in Taunton, Mass., Lane earned a bachelor of science degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During World War I he was an aerial structural engineer in the Army Signal Corps.
He is survived by his wife, sons Robert and John, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
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