RECOGNITION OF AN AVIATION GIANT
CHARLES E. TAYLOR (1868-1956) THE WRIGHT BROTHERS’ MECHANICIAN, BOOK BY HOWARD R. DUFOUR WITH PETER J. UNITT (THIS BOOK NARRATION EXTRACTED FROM AVIATION HISTORY NOV. 2003 ISSUE).

That’s right – the word is "mechanician", which we nowadays shorten to mechanic. But Charlie Taylor was much more than your run-of-the-mill engine fiddler. He built from scratch the engine that provided the oomph to keep the Wright 1903 Flyer in the air, the power for the first man-carrying, controlled, powered flight. He milled the pieces, turned the cylinder holes on a lathe, and then put the whole thing together. At it ran. What Charlie Taylor did with metal and machinery produced a significant contribution to the success of the brothers who engineered the aerodynamic and structural research and development of the first successful aircraft, and who were the first to take that aircraft into the sky.

As Howard DuFour makes clear, the three accomplished all that with a minimum of time, space and equipment. Apparently, there was insufficient room in the shop to assemble the entire plane and, judging by the difficulties they experienced after full assembling it at Kitty Hawk, they did not attempt to run the engine, installed on the wing, until shortly before the historic flight. They did, however, "block test" the engine before crating and shipping it. To accomplish the horsepower tests, Charlie reported that they rigged up a resistance fan with blades an inch and a half wide and five feet, two inches long. The boys figured out the horsepower by counting the revolutions per minute.

I initially learned about this book from an Aviation history reader, who told me he had just heard a wonderful presentation by Howard DuFour and sent along his telephone number. When I called and talked with him, DuFour agreed that his co-author, Peter Unitt, would provide a feature article for this issue (see Pg. 34 of A.H.). Of course, DuFour’s background as a tool and die maker, design engineer and master model maker adds immensely to the credibility of the book.

Taylor built not only the engine for the 1903 Flyer but also the power plants for the 1904 and 1905 versions. The 1905 Flyer has been called the first practical airplane, it was after all, the one in which the first passenger rode. Taylor continued to serve as the Wrights’ chief mechanic and was in charge of maintenance at the Wright Flying School at Huffman Prairie, near Dayton, where many of the earliest aviators learned to fly.

Charlie Taylor would outlive both the Wrights, gaining a certain celebrity status late in life as the sole survivor of their very productive partnership. Howard DuFour traces his story through good times and bad, illustrating it with a variety of images, photographs, documents, cutaways and mechanical drawings.

After Taylor’s death in January 1956, the aviation community did not forget him. The Federal Aviation Administration created the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award to recognize the lifetime achievements of its senior mechanics. In 1965 Taylor was also inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

DuFour himself set out to build his own re-creation of the 1903 engine. For modern day mechanicians, his book includes instructions on how to purchase a set of 1903 engine drawing from Wright State University. (Article submitted by Bert Bedell.)

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© 2004 The Long Island Early Fliers Club, P.O. Box 221, Bethpage, NY 11714-0221 • info@longislandearlyfliers.org