How is aircraft maintenance organized? Is you average mechanic assigned to a
plane or to
a subsystem? In other words, is the mechanic assigned to Airplane #1234, or
to "left
wing hydraulics"?



First and foremost, are you looking at maintenance in the Air Force, Army,
or the Navy/Marine Corps.
A brief rundown on the Navy/Marine Corps.
Navy has plane captains, crewchiefs are usually a position assigned to a
flight crew member. I.e. an E-4 maybe flying as a crewchief today while a E-6
may fly as a second crewman that day, opposite the next.
You cannot join the Navy to be a plane captain. Wither you join to be a
avionics technician or a structual mechanic, both will go to the line become
qualified plane captains, (refuel, daily, turnaround inspections, etc, etc.)
After awhile, you will report to your particular shop specialty. But it
doesn't stop their, "cross training" begins.
To give you an idea about how fanatical the Navy is on cross training, look
at there NEC's (Naval Enlisted Classification) or MOS in other sevices.
http://buperscd.technology.navy.mil/...8/nec/ASMP.htm

I was an AT (avionics) 8380, (UH-1N organizational maint. tech), but as you
can see AD's (jet mechs), AM's (structure mechs) and AE's (electricians) are
all also 8380's.
On many occassions all different rates we add muscle power to an engine
change, blade track, pulling panels, changing boxes, etc, etc.
With all that said, you maybe assigned to "I" level (intermmdiate)
maintenance. Thats where you would work on a specific box or engine. With this
you are usually assigned to a NAS or ships company.
As with everything in the military, this is not written in stone, some
squadrons/ships may operate differently do to the type aircraft they operate.
There are always exceptions to the rule.

J