Joshua Lang, a member of the Ronald Reagan Pacific Palisades Post 283, was influenced by stories of his grandfather Oscar, who used to work at Travis Air Force Base as a flying mechanic; a crew chief who would do all the maintenance test flights. Unfortunately, his grandfather was taken by cancer when Josh was only 2 years old.
In 2000, Joshua joined the Army and was a Longbow Apache attack helicopter mechanic in the 6th Cav for six years. His first unit was based in Germany and involved in the invasion of Iraq in 2003. While he was serving in Afghanistan, he was inspired to take his two passions at the time, which was photography and theater, and to go investigate the possibility of a career in film.
Ten years later, he has the skills and the tools to start his passion project, a documentary titled ‘Apache Warrior’ (2017) about his unit during the opening hours of the Iraq war, he says it was really a tribute to all those pilots that flew on that mission and as well as all that flew in the aircraft. But then that’s almost always the case, movies are about pilots in aircraft on a mission, they don’t make movies or write books about mechanics. He thought it was about time for a film for all the hard-working folk that kept those machines in the air, like he did and his grandfather before him.
In 2019, he stumbled upon the Portal of the Folded Wings, shrine to early aviation pioneers. And there under the massive dome is the final resting place of the grandfather of all aviation mechanics. Joshua did some further research and found a book called Charlie Taylor 1868 to 1956 the Wright Brothers Mechanician, written by Howard R. DuFour, a retired model maker that was a veteran of the Manhattan project. Soon after this discovery, Joshua traveled to Dayton, Ohio to learn more.
Joshua screened the aviation war doc to the Huffman Prairie Historical Society, where he was introduced to the Wright and Taylor families and some of the people who helped DuFour write the book. Over the following nine months he produced a 12-minute short film that explained a brief history of Charles E. Taylor. Joshua has interviewed over twenty aviation historians, mechanics, pilots, and descendants, however, production slowed down when the pandemic hit in 2020. At the time, he was on his way to see Charlie Taylors work station at the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn Michigan, when the whole state went into lockdown. Since then, he has been able to continue to research and edit together the film in part, thanks to a generous grant from the Aero Club of Southern California.
Charles E. Taylor has been called “the man aviation history almost forgot.” When the Wright brothers went to work building the airframe for the first powered aircraft, Taylor using only the simple tools he had in the shop – a drill press, lathe, and assorted hand tools – went to work designing and constructing a 180-lb., 12-horsepower engine that was used in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk. Joshua Lang explained, “I‘m just trying to find these fine threads of a man that preferred to be in the background and weave this elegant tapestry of his life, and his effect on aviation.”
Joshua Lang explained that Charlie Taylor’s story is very powerful for the American aviation community, from working with the Boys to helping with the Vin Fiz Flyer which was an early Wright Brothers pusher biplane, that in 1911 became the first aircraft to fly coast-to-coast across the United States, from Long Island New York to Long Beach, California. That is an amazing story and it plays a good part. Joshua says, “I’d like to do that as a movie; telling you about the Vin Fiz and the harrowing and crazy cross country flight. ”
Joshua Lang said, “I think that’s important to be able to give those aviation pioneers recognition and I am very proud to be able to share this history with aviation maintenance technicians at the over 17,000 airports speckled all over the globe. I really feel the personal connection to the story and I hope I am able to put together a film that lives up to the legends of Charles E. Taylor and the industry he pioneered.”
Lang would like to thank the Aero Club of Southern California for the editing grant to get the film to an inspirational rough cut and if you at home would like to see more about this documentary or show your support to Joshua and his team, please check out the videos at URL: https://www.mechanicaldragons.com/work#/the-mechanician-2022/
Author: Kevin Burns
Kevin is the 2021-22 Area 5 commissioner and chairman for The American Legion Department of California Aerospace Commission.