Aircraft Fitter (Assembler)
🔩Assembles aircraft and helicopters at the factory: rivets fuselages, installs components, routes wiring looms. Tolerances are fractions of a millimetre.
Prospects & pay
What the work is like
💼 Job market
🇺🇸 $45.3k a year on average
Other assemblers and fabricators — US: Census ACS 2020–24 (full-time), BLS projections 2025–35
🇬🇧 £46.1k median a year · 11,000 jobs
Aircraft maintenance and related trades — UK: ONS ASHE 2025 (full-time)
🤖 AI & automation
Robots drill and rivet simple sections, but complex aircraft assemblies are still built by hand, and aerospace plants are short of skilled fitters.
Who it suits
Interests: 🔧 Making things by hand, ⚙️ Tech and engineering, ✈️ Transport, flying, sea.
Key strengths: manual dexterity, attention to detail.
Where to study
- Apprenticeship Aerospace engineering technician / aircraft fitter apprenticeship (e.g. Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing)
- Vocational Ausbildung Fluggerätmechaniker (DE); aviation manufacturing certificate at a community college (US)
Key school subjects (A-level / IB / AP): Maths, Physics.
🧗 The main route is a paid apprenticeship at an aircraft plant (3–4 years; Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing) or the Fluggerätmechaniker Ausbildung in Germany. In the US: short college programmes and on-site training.
Things to know
🛢️ Dirt, noise, smells
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