The article is devoted to the question of improvement of quality and efficiency of professional training of future technicians in aviation industry in the American educational establishments. Main attention is paid to the studies of pedagogical technologies, which are used for the sake of qualitative and efficient training of specialists of aviation industry. The main purpose of vocational education and training is to help students to develop a way of thinking that would enable them in understanding the technical systems and master learning at the conceptual level. It is a well known fact that researches of pedagogical technologies are aimed at the development of mental models. They are important because: first--they make possible a reduction of time for training. That is rather essential taking into account the fact how much time the "transformation" of a student's level of knowledge from a novice to an experienced worker takes. The researches of pedagogical technologies help to find a optimum ways for acquisition of expert type of thinking. Secondly, pedagogical technologies help to cut down expenses on training. This is especially topical during professional training of technicians, who are to better understand structural, functional, behavioral aspects of technical systems. In addition, they must effectively operate in troubleshooting in the system which also shortens financial expenses on the maintenance of equipment.