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Outside Magazine June 2002
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One Hundred Years of Altitude (Cont.)

A WEEK LATER Richmond is deep in a late-winter cold snap; Young won't be flying. Instead, he invites me to meet him at the Virginia Aviation Museum, a corner of which he's commandeered to assemble the '03. I arrive to find him and Taylor kneeling on the floor cutting thin cotton muslin to cover the Flyer's upper wing, taking shape behind them. Young is excited. He's just received photos of Joerges's newly formed engine block and pistons. "It's a work of art," he says, grinning.

I ask Young if he thinks he can really be airborne by summer. "The best way to answer that is to ask the Wrights," he says evasively. "Once they get to Hatteras, it takes them three weeks to assemble the plane and 20 days of tinkering. So once Udo comes over with the engine, that's what it'll take us."

And that will be when? "Depends on the stock market and on how much money Udo needs to finish assembling the engine. We'll be flying by the time it gets warm."

Taylor works silently on the floor. "But this is the fun stuff. Wilbur writes that as he sewed, Orville squatted on the floor marking the fabric." Young pauses, pointing at his assistant.

"Check it out," he says. "There's Orville."
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