Happy National Aviation Maintenance Technician Day! On May 24, today honors any and all of the men and women who have worked behind the scenes making and keeping aviation possible.
We all know the story of Orville and Wilbur Wright, Kitty Hawk, and the experiment of human flight. But how many of us know the name, American inventor, mechanic and machinist Charles Edward Taylor?
In 1902, this man came to work for the Wright Brothers when the research turned to powered flight. The automobile companies couldn’t supply an engine both light enough and powerful enough for flight.
Enter Taylor. A machinist by trade, with a metal lathe, drill press, and other hand tools, he built the twelve-horsepower engine, which propelled the Wright’s aeroplane twenty feet above the wind-swept North Carolina beach.
The longest flight lasted fifty-nine seconds for a distance of eight hundred and fifty-two feet. It took Taylor six weeks to build the engine, and yet, history books rarely mention the man who helped make the historic flight on December 17, 1903 possible.
Being on the cusp of the aeronautics industry, Taylor continued to design aircraft engines for the Wright brothers as well as teaching them to build their own. When the first airport was established (by the Wrights), he was named the airport manager.
The partnership continued when the Wright brothers were awarded a military contract for the first military plane with Taylor designing and building the engine.
In 1911, Taylor’s adventures continued when American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician William Randolph Hearst offered up a cash award to the first pilot to fly across the United States in thirty days or less.
American aviation pionee Calbraith "Cal" Rodgers, then a young pilot, accepted the challenge and hired Taylor as his mechanic.
Rodgers made it, landing and crashing from New York to Pasadena, with Taylor trailing along in a car.
Taylor continued in the field of aviation maintenance for more than sixty years. Like Taylor, aviation maintenance technicians around the world work in the background, keeping civilian and military aircraft safe.
On May 24, we recognize their achievements and humble history.
Celebrate the innovators of aviation who may be behind the scenes. Learn about aviation maintenance and thank those who get us in the air and keep us there.
Use #AviationMaintenaceTechnicianDay to share on social media.
In 2001, through the efforts of American Aviation Safety Inspector Airworthiness Richard Dilbeck, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) created the prestigious Charles E. Taylor Master Mechanic Award to honor AMTs, who had served at least fifty years in aircraft maintenance.
The following year, American politician, military veteran, former police officer and then-California Senator Knight introduced a resolution honoring National Aviation Maintenance Technicians Day annually in honor of Taylor’s birthday.
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