Keeping Aviation History Alive

Finding his criminal justice career unfulfilling, at age 30 Matthew Trowbridge decided to follow in his dad’s footsteps and become a jet mechanic instead, which enabled him to finally do work he loves.

After starting at Constant Aviation — which hired him before he even graduated PIA — Trowbridge is now a Quality Assurance Auditor for Flexjet. “Our department audits the aircraft paperwork and third party facilities that perform maintenance on our planes, and we enroll and integrate new aircraft into our fleet. I’m learning new things every day and constantly discovering just how vast this industry is.”

Trowbridge also volunteers at Liberty Aviation Museum, where he gets to work on vintage planes like the museum’s WWII-era B-25 Mitchell bomber and a PBY Catalina seaplane. “Very few mechanics have both the A&P license and the time to do this kind of work,” says Trowbridge. “But for people like me who just love aviation, it’s the chance of a lifetime to be able to work on these old planes. You’re keeping history alive, and for me that’s the most important thing.”