How To Become An Airframe Technician: What It Is and Career Path

What is an airframe technician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an airframe technician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.62 an hour? That's $42,897 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 9,000 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreAirframe TechnicianUS Average

Salary

3.4

Avg. Salary $42,897

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.8

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.62%

Asian 6.72%

Black or African American 9.17%

Hispanic or Latino 23.47%

Unknown 5.06%

White 54.96%

Gender

female 3.51%

male 96.49%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

7.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.2

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an airframe technician

Explore airframe technician education requirements

Most common airframe technician degrees

Associate

41.5 %

Bachelor's

29.8 %

High School Diploma

10.5 %

Start to develop specific airframe technician skills

Skills	Percentages
Powerplant	14.86%
Aircraft Systems	11.80%
Hand Tools	10.89%
FAA	8.81%
Maintenance Tasks	8.75%

Complete relevant airframe technician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New airframe technicians learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an airframe technician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real airframe technician resumes.

Research airframe technician duties and responsibilities

Manage the FOD prevention program to reduce costly repairs and increase the participation in FOD awareness and FOD walk downs.
Perform heavy maintenance on MD80 aircraft assuring compliance with manufacturer, company, and FAA specifications.
Complete all assign maintenance operations without incidence, in accordance with FAA approve procedures.
Analyze aircraft publications to troubleshoot aircraft discrepancies down, assessing proper course of action for repair and/or replacement of malfunctioning equipment.

Prepare your airframe technician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your airframe technician resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an airframe technician resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable airframe technician resume templates

Build a professional airframe technician resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your airframe technician resume.