Ed Libassi, a fixture at fixing planes, lands honor named for Wright Brothers' mechanic Charles Taylor

An achievement award named for the Wright brothers' mechanic has been given to a Shoreham mechanic who has been fixing planes since he was a teenager. 

Ed Libassi, 70, got the honor, the Charles Taylor "Master Mechanic" Award, on Friday, joining a roster of more than 3,000 recipients nationwide through the years. 

The award is given by the Federal Aviation Administration to recognize the lifetime accomplishments of senior mechanics who have been doing the job for at least 50 years.

“Since I was 9, I just had the mechanical ability to take things apart, inspect them, understand how they work, repair them and put them back together again,” Libassi said in an interview. 

Taylor, the award's namesake, was not only the Wright brothers' mechanic but also credited with designing and building the engine for the brothers' first successful aircraft, according to the FAA website. 

The brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright were the clever bicycle mechanics credited with inventing the airplane. They took their first flight in 1903. 

Libassi, who grew up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and moved to Kings Park with his family at age 9, owns A&P Aircraft Maintenance. The company maintains or fixes between 500 and 600 airplanes every year, he said.

“We’ll maintain anything from a small Cessna 150 to a Southwest 737,” he said. 

The company is based at MacArthur Airport, in Ronkonkoma, where a ceremony in Libassi's honor was held Friday in a hangar.

Libassi also has a consulting business investigating crashes. The business is hired by insurance companies, lawyers and others, as a second opinion to the findings of federal aviation investigators.   

He never became a pilot, due to hearing loss suffered while working at Kennedy Airport decades ago. 

“Unfortunately, in the 70s and the 80s, it wasn’t something that we all keyed into, protecting our hearing,” he said.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.