‘I always wanted to learn to fly, but I never did. The Wrights refused to teach me and tried to discourage the idea. They said they needed me in the shop and to service their machines, and if I learned to fly, I’d be gadding about the country and may be become an exhibition pilot and they’d never see me again.’

It took more than a century of powered flight for Aviation Maintenance Technicians (AMT) to get their special day. National AMT Day has been celebrated in the USA since May 24, 2008, to honour the men and women who toil ceaselessly to keep aircraft flying safely. The date is significant. On that day in 1868, Charles Edward Taylor, recognised as the father of aviation maintenance, was born. Taylor was practically an honorary member of the Wright brothers team—a genius who loved cigars and machinery.

Charlie Taylor’s long association with the Wrights began in 1901. His first aeronautical task was to make a wind tunnel for their experiments. He designed a simple rectangular box with a fan at one end, driven by a natural-gas engine. It worked. As the brothers felt they were nearing their goal of powered flight, they sent letters to several manufacturers asking if they could produce an engine that would develop eight to nine horsepower (hp), weigh no more than 180 pounds, and be free from vibration. The manufacturers politely declined. The brothers again turned to Charlie. He had no engine-making experience, but did have a keen mechanical mind. He designed and built an aluminium water-cooled engine, based partly on rough sketches provided by the Wrights. In just six weeks, it was ready. In February 1903, Charlie’s engine was mounted on a test stand and ran perfectly, producing 12 hp at full rpm—almost 50 per cent more than the requirement. This permitted the Wrights to strengthen the wings and framework of the aircraft they were building. The engine turned two counter-rotating pusher propellers by means of chains. The brothers tested several different propellers in their wind tunnel in readiness for their pioneering attempt.

And so it happened that the world’s first powered, controlled and sustained heavier-than-air flight took place on December 17, 1903. The Kitty Hawk Flyer with Orville Wright at the controls lifted off at 1035 hrs. The flight was over in a jiffy—just 120 seconds—and covered a distance of 120 feet. The speed was 6.8 mph and the average height was 10 feet. Charlie was not present to witness this epochal feat. His absence fit a pattern, since he wanted only to be with his work. He took care of the Wright’s airfield and facility while they roamed. In this respect, he was the world’s first Airport Manager.

Did Taylor fly? In a 1948 interview, he said, “I always wanted to learn to fly, but I never did. The Wrights refused to teach me and tried to discourage the idea. They said they needed me in the shop and to service their machines, and if I learned to fly, I’d be gadding about the country and maybe become an exhibition pilot and they’d never see me again.” On September 17, 1908, Orville Wright finally agreed to take Charlie up for his first flight while demonstrating the Wright airplane for the first Army contract. They were ready for take-off, when a senior officer asked Orville if he would mind taking an Army observer instead. So Lt Thomas Selfridge took Charlie’s place. The aircraft crashed soon after take-off, killing Selfridge and seriously injuring Orville. This was the first fatality in a powered aircraft. Everybody has a story of how someone was narrowly saved from an air crash by a lastminute change of plan. Charlie was the first such case. He investigated the crash and found that the new propellers they installed before the flight had delaminated. He reported his findings to Orville, who was in the hospital. Taylor was thus the first person to investigate a fatal air accident. Despite this accident he wanted to become a pilot.

In 1911, Calbraith Perry Rodgers decided to make the first flight across the United States and bought an aircraft from the Wright brothers. Orville lent Charlie to Rodgers knowing that he would be the only one who could keep the plane flying for that marathon successfully. Crossing the US took Rodgers 47 days. He crashed 16 times, and the plane was repaired so many times that finally only the rudder, the engine drip pan, and a single strut of the original machine remained—a testament to the skill that Charlie used in keeping it airworthy.