FAA honors local aviation mechanic with prestigious award
Rob Danzi was honored with the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award from the Federal Aviation Administration during a Jan. 17 presentation.
The private event took place at Danzi’s current business office and hangar for Sussex Aero Maintenance at the Delaware Coastal Airport in Georgetown.
Fellow aviators and mechanics surprised Danzi when they arrived early in the afternoon. They returned his biography and resume, and gave him their letters of recommendation, which were part of the nominating application submitted last October.
They presented him with a complete airman file documenting his service from December 1969 through Oct. 10, 2021. The documents detail more than 50 years of Danzi’s steady employment, completed and sealed by the Airmen Certification Branch of the Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation.
Lastly, Danzi’s colleagues presented him with the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award in recognition of 50 years of exemplary aviation maintenance experience, distinguished professionalism and steadfast commitment to aviation safety.
The award is named after Charles E. Taylor, 1868-1956, who built the first aircraft engine used by the Wright brothers in their Wright Flyer aircraft. His mechanical skills were vital in building and maintaining the Wright brothers’ engines and airplanes. So too, Danzi’s skills have been equally vital in building and maintaining his clients’ varied aircraft for many decades. All the support letters for the Taylor award attest to that notion.
The letters of recommendation written in October 2021 by local aviators and mechanics Hunter H. Harris, Mathew Sager, Paul E. Nuwer II and Larry Kelley all echo Danzi’s long-standing, high level of aviation maintenance, trustworthy expertise and steadfast dedication to aircraft safety, as well as his respected place in the aviation community, which is a very tight-knit group on Delmarva.
“[Rob] is the most knowledgeable aircraft mechanic I have ever met. He remains the go-to guy when I am having a stubborn problem with an airplane,” said Kelley, who owns, maintains and pilots several aircraft including his Mitchell B-25 World War II bomber, stored in the hangar behind Sussex Aero Maintenance.
The FAA will post the name of Robert O. Danzi, Selbyville, Delaware, January 2022 Master Mechanic Award, to the electronic roll of honor.
