Summary
The Care and Maintenance of Heavy Jets is a look into the world and culture of airline aircraft maintenance. It is also a very unique study of current American industrial labor and productivity problems.
About the Author
Christian Parker is an FAA licensed aircraft mechanic with over twenty years experience. He has worked in the military, an airline repair station, and as of 2007 - with the Boeing Company on the 787 program.
Christian grew up with an interest in history and machines. Christian’s childhood hero was his grandfather. His grandfather, who had an interest in history and genealogy, was a marine engineer and union business agent, and Chris grew up with the noise of Big Labor in the background.
After two hitches in the 1980s with the Air Force as a mechanic, Christian became fascinated with anthropology, and considered for a period of time a career as an anthropologist. Christian went to school for aviation at Seattle area community colleges, but history and anthropology were his true loves. Devoting most of his time in the 1990s to study, Christian slunk around the University of Washington’s “Red Square,” frequenting its libraries, as well as days spent reading in coffee shops throughout Puget Sound.
Though disenchanted with the academic world after a few years and returning to work as an FAA licensed aircraft mechanic, Christian was ever cognizant of observing the industrial world with an anthropologist’s eye, and sought to address the labor problems of American industry from the perspective of an “Industrial Anthropologist” working “in the field.” The results of his study are the subject of The Care and Maintenance of Heavy Jets.
