National Aviation Maintenance Technician Day in the United States Date in the current year: May 24, 2024

Aviation Maintenance Technician Day was established in honor of American inventor and mechanic Charles Edward Taylor, who is best known for building the aircraft engine that the Wright brothers used in their first airplane, the Wright Flyer.

Taylor was born on May 24, 1868 in Illinois. He got acquainted with the Wright brothers while living in his wife’s home town of Dayton, Ohio. They hired Taylor to work at their bicycle shop. Originally just a repairman, he was eventually entrusted with running the shop while the brothers were experimenting with gliders.

At one point the Wright brothers realized that none of the off-the-shelf engines available in the United States had the required power-to-weight ratio for the aircraft they were bulding. They turned to Taylor for help, and it took him only a month and a half to build an aircraft engine using rough sketches provided by the Wrights. It was an aluminum-copper, water-cooled, four-cylinder engine that weighed 159 pounds and produced 12 horsepower (8.9 kW).

Taylor helped the Wrights build their next aircraft, including their first military plane, and was appointed a leading mechanic in the Wright Company following its establishment in 1909. Although he wanted to become a pilot and asked the Wrights to teach him, they discouraged Taylor because the brothers needed his skills and experience as a mechanic.

Taylor worked for the Wrights until 1920. After that, he worked several other jobs until suffering a heart attack in 1945, which left him unable to work. He died from asthma complications on January 30, 1956, exactly eight years after his friend and former employer Orville Wright.

To honor Taylor’s legacy, the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award presented by the U. S. Federal Aviation Administration and the Charles Taylor Aviation Maintenance Science Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University were named after him. He was also posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio nine years after his death.

In 2007, a resolution suggesting that Taylor’s birthday, May 24, be observed as National Aviation Maintenance Technician Day was introduced by Californian congressman Bob Filner. It was passed on April 30, 2008. However, National Aviation Maintenance Technician Day is not a nationwide day of observance. It is currently observed by 45 states.

The holiday honors the men and women who work behind the scenes to keep civilian and military aircraft safe and make aviation possible. Although they are respected in the professional community, aviation maintenance specialists don’t get enough credit from the general public, and their professional holiday is designed to change that.

If you want to join the observance, give a shout out to all the humble aviation maintenance technicians on social media and don’t forget to use the hashtag #AviationMaintenanceTechnicianDay to spread the word and raise awareness.