Revision as of 18:54, 28 August 2014

Eddie August Schneider (1911-1940) was a record holding aviator, he set the junior transcontinental airspeed record in 1930. He fought for the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War and he died in a plane crash in 1940. (b. October 20, 1911, 2nd Avenue and 17th Street, Manhattan, New York County, New York City, New York, USA - d. December 23, 1940, Deep Creek and Flatbush Avenue, Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, Kings County, Long Island, New York City, New York, USA)

Sorted by publication

New York Times; New York City, New York

New York Times; July 30, 1930; page 43; “Boy Pilot Seeks Record. Jersey City Student Set to Fly to Coast and Back in August. Westfield, New Jersey; July 29, 1930. Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey City high school graduate, will try next month to better the national junior transcontinental airplane speed records of the late Frank Goldsborough. He plans to fly from the Westfield Airport to San Francisco and back. The youth has 275 air-hours to his credit, of which thirty-eight hours were of night flying. The record attempt will be made in a four-piece Cessna monoplanes powered with a Warner Scarab motor, a far faster ship than that used by Goldsborough.”

New York Times; August 12, 1930; page 4; “Seeks Title on Coast Hop. Jersey Boy, 18, Plans Start Tomorrow, Attempting Speed Record. Westfield, New Jersey; August 11, 1930. Weather permitting, Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old, Jersey City high school graduate, will take off from the Westfield Airport here at daybreak Wednesday in an effort to break the junior transcontinental speed record set two months ago by the late Frank Goldsborough. Schneider who decided today to make the attempt this week, will pilot a Cessna monoplane, powered with a 110-horse power motor, bought for him by a syndicate headed by his father, Emil A. Schneider. Only adverse weather conditions will delay the start of the flight, the youth said. He is considered an expert flier, having 275 flying hours to his credit. He plans to fly to Columbus, Ohio, and from there to St. Louis and spend the first night in Wichita, Kansas. He also plans to stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico.”

New York Times; August 15, 1930; page 5; “Schneider Halted by Fog. Flier was Forced Down for the Second Time in Pennsylvania. Water Street, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1930 (Associated Press) Rain and fog today combined to frustrate the attempt of Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Westfield (N.J.) pilot, to break the junior transcontinental east-to-west flight record established by the late Frank Goldsborough. The record is 33 hours 35 minutes. An extremely low ceiling forced Schneider to land at the Huntingdon Airport this morning, and early this afternoon he took off in an effort to complete his flight. However, he found he had misjudged the weather conditions and had to make a second forced landing at the Waterstreet Airport, twelve miles from Huntington. Schneider made safe landings both times and his plane was undamaged.”

New York Times; August 16, 1930; page 28; “Schneider Gains St. Louis. St. Louis, August 15, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider who is attempting to set a new junior transcontinental air record, landed at Lambert - St. Louis Field at 7:04 P. M. , Central Standard Time, today from Columbus, Ohio. Schneider reported that the trip was uneventful. He left there at 3:21 P. M. Schneider's flying time since leaving Westfield, New Jersey has been 8 hours and 38 minutes, The youthful airman said he would spend the night here, probably leaving for Wichita, Kansas, tomorrow morning.”

New York Times; August 17, 1930; page 23; “Schneider Flies to Wichita. Wichita, Kansas, August 16, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Westfield, New Jersey [sic] youth, attempting to establish a new junior transcontinental flight record, arrived here tonight at 7:45. He had left St. Louis at 1:25 p.m.”

New York Times; August 18, 1930; page 17; “Schneider in New Mexico. Downed at Anton Chico, He Will Fly To Albuquerque This Morning. Albuquerque, New Mexico, August 17, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old flier seeking to establish a junior transcontinental flight record, was forced to land near Anton Chico, 100 miles east of here, late today, en route from Wichita, Kansas, to Albuquerque. The young flier telephoned airport officials here he would remain overnight at Anton Chico and take off at daybreak tomorrow for Albuquerque. He is expected here about 6:30 am (Mountain Standard Time).” Note: Schneider was from Jersey City, New Jersey, he left from the airport in Westfield, New Jersey.

New York Times; August 19, 1930; page 3; “Schneider Reaches Goal. Lands At Los Angeles In Record Junior Cross-Country Flying Time Los Angeles, August 18, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18, of Jersey City, brought his plane to a landing at the municipal airport at 7:13 o'clock, Pacific Standard Time (11:13 o'clock, New York Time), tonight to finish his transcontinental flight and establish a new junior record of 29 hours 41 minutes, flying time.”

New York Times; August 22, 1930; page 13; “Schneider pushes plane. Lands at Albuquerque, New Mexico under eight hours From Los Angeles. Albuquerque, New Mexico, August 21, 1930 (Associated Press). Eddie Schneider, who is attempting to set a West-to-East transcontinental junior flight record, landed here today at 3:15 P.M., Mountain Time, with elapsed time from Los Angeles of 7 hours and 58 minutes. Schneider will spend the night here, planning to take off for Wichita, Kansas, at 7:30 A.M. tomorrow. He expects to make the 600-mile flight in six hours. After spending the night in Wichita, Schneider said he will take off for New York City, which he hopes to reach before Saturday Night.”

New York Times; August 23, 1930; page 28; “Schneider Plans Flying Here Today. Wichita, Kansas; August 22, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old New Jersey youth seeking to establish a junior transcontinental flight record from West to East, landed here at 3:13 P. M., Central Time, today from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He plans to take off at daybreak tomorrow on a nonstop hop to New York.”

New York Times; August 24, 1930; page 2; “Schneider Reaches Ohio. He Lands at Columbus From Wichita on Junior Record Attempt. Columbus, Ohio, August 23, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey City aviator, who is attempting to establish a new West-to-East transcontinental air record, put his plane down at Port Columbus here this afternoon at 3:55 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. He hopped off from Wichita, Kansas, at 6:50 A.M., Central Standard Time, this morning. Schneider required 7 hours and 45 minutes for the trip from Wichita to Port Columbus, a distance of about 800 miles. His total elapsed time to this city is 21 hours 35 minutes. He is attempting to shatter the junior record of 28 hours 55 minutes from Pacific to the Atlantic, made by the late Frank Goldsborough. The young flier established a new junior East-to-West transcontinental mark last week.”

New York Times; August 25, 1930; page 5; “Schneider Makes Record Flight East. Pilot, 18, Cuts Goldsborough's Junior Coast-To-Coast Mark by 1 1/2 Hours. Lowers Round-Trip Time. Jersey City High School Boy Arrives From Los Angeles In 27 Hours 19 Minutes, Dodging Storm on Way. Roosevelt Field, Long Island; August 24, 1930. In his trim little Cessna monoplane Edward Schneider, 18-year-old high school student, roared across the field here this afternoon, descended in a series of tight spiral turns and touched his wheels at 4:03 to establish new junior transcontinental flying records. Despite two setbacks, one over Kansas when his compass refused to function, and another when a storm overtook him over the treacherous Alleghenies on today's non-stop leg from Columbus, Ohio, the youthful pilot set his flying time between Los Angeles and Roosevelt Field at 27 hours and 36 minutes the former mark of 29 hours 55 minutes set by Frank Goldsborough, who was killed recently in a crash in the White Mountains. Schneider was greeted by his father, Emil A. Schneider, of 114 Carleton Avenue, Jersey City, others of the family and 2,500 enthusiastic Sunday visitors to the field here. He started from Los Angeles last Thursday and made three overnight stops en route. On landing, he said that the storm was on its way here, and stood by while mechanics hurried his plane into a hanger. He said that he was too hungry to talk about his trip. Then when his hunger had been partially appeased by a sandwich the young pilot related his experiences on the last leg of his flight. Weather reports had not been too good when he was ready to take off from Columbus. He counted on an even chance to ‘get through,’ however, and pushed on with the knowledge that he was on the air mail route, with its emergency landing fields and better sectional airports at frequent intervals in case he were forced down. As he neared Uniontown, Pennsylvania, he had to leave the course about thirty miles to the south, he said, to avoid a severe storm which was then over Pittsburgh. As he came up over the Alleghenies, approaching Middletown from the west, a strong headwind was encountered which brought with it s strata of low-hanging clouds. He could not see the ground for a while, he said, as he flew above the clouds rather than hitting one of the mountains. With no landmarks to check by and no radio guidance, he headed for New York by compass and got his next land check near Stroudsbourg, Pennsylvania. Keeping the mail route under him, again he headed for New Brunswick and, finding visibility fair beneath him, he continued on over the flats of New Jersey, the Hudson and East rivers and the outlying sections of New York City. He maintained high attitude so he would be able to wheel and run from thickening weather which was approaching. A few moments after he landed here the skies darkened and mechanics and others on the field rushed their planes into hangers or took precautions to prevent them from being damaged in the approaching storm Schneider and his family left the field almost immediately and motored to their home in Jersey City. In addition to lowering Goldsborough’s record for the trip from Los Angeles to New York Schneider also broke the junior records for the east-west trip last week and the record for the round trip journey concluded today. He left Westfield, New Jersey, last week and, with several overnight stops en route, landed at Los Angeles in 29 hours and 55 minutes of flying time, 4 hours and 22 minutes faster than Goldsborough’s time over the same route. His flying time for the round trip was therefore 57 hours and 14 minutes, against his predecessor’s record of 62 hours and 58 minutes.”

New York Times; August 26, 1930; “Hague Greets Boy Flier. Schneider Delivers Letter From Los Angeles Mayor at Exercises. Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City, who returned yesterday to the City Hall there after a brief vacation, officially welcomed another newly returned Jersey City celebrity shortly before noon. He was Edward Schneider, holder of the junior transcontinental flight record. Young Schneider went to the City Hall to deliver a message to Mayor Hague from John C. Porter, Mayor of Los Angeles. Mayor Porter's letter said: "Your letter of August 12 was delivered to me today by Junior Aviator Edward Schneider. My congratulations to you for the enterprise shown by one of your citizens in making this record-breaking flight. It is, indeed, a pleasure to extend to your city greetings from the city of Los Angeles." About 2,000 persons were present to greet the young aviator and his father as they ascended the City Hall steps.”

New York Times; September 15, 1930; “Tour Fliers Fight Storm To Winnipeg; Haldeman Set Back Despite Game Flight Imperiled By Crippled Engine. Davis Makes Third Place Livingston Advances To Fifth, While Russell And Zeller In Fords Hold First And Second. Mishap Imperils Haldeman. Standing Of The Contestants. Winnipeg, Manitoba, September 14, 1930. Wind, fog and rain caused some disorder in the orderly procession of the thirty-five planes of the sixth annual National Air Tour, which came from Duluth, Minnisota, across the ...”

New York Times; September 20, 1930. “Air Tour Speedy In Mountain Hop; Zeller Flies Transport Plane At 175.8-Mile Average On 282-Mile Leg. Halt At Casper, Wyo. Livingston And Davis Hold Lead In Points. Great Falls Offers Apologies On Liquor Seizure. Fliers Get Regrets On Liquor Loss. Casper, Wyoming, September 20. 1930. Over the hardest flying country thus far encountered on their loop around Southwestern Canada and the North-western ...”

New York Times; September 22, 1930. “Boy pilot delays flight. Repairs postpone attempt to beat transcontinental record.” Note: Robert Nietzel Buck attempting to break Eddie Schneider's record.

New York Times; September 22, 1930. “Robert Buck, 16-year-old Elizabeth, New Jersey aviator, attempting to set a new junior transcontinental flight record, landed his plane here early tonight for an overnight stop.” Note: Robert Nietzel Buck attempting to break Eddie Schneider's record.

New York Times; September 30, 1930; page 24; “Boy flier reaches Indiana on long hop; Robert Buck starts from Newark, New Jersey in attempt to break junior coast-to-coast record. Delayed by head winds runs out of gasoline and is forced to refuel at Martin's Ferry and Columbus, Ohio. Delayed by refueling. Father and mother see start. Indianapolis, Illinois, September 29, 1930 (Associated Press) Robert Buck, 16-year-old Elizabeth, New Jersey aviator, attempting to set a new junior transcontinental flight record, landed his plane here early tonight for an overnight stop.” Note: Robert Nietzel Buck attempting to break Eddie Schneider's record.

New York Times; October 3, 1930; page 27; “Buck forced down; stays at Amarillo, Texas; spends second night at Texas city after getting away and then returning. Motor fails in 70 miles youth to start again today for Albuquerque, New Mexico still confident of cross-country record.” Note: Robert Nietzel Buck attempting to break Eddie Schneider's record.

New York Times; October 5, 1930; “Fast Flying Marked Ford Tour. Full-Throttle Speeds for Most of 4,900-Mile Route in Canada and Northwest Gave New Practical Meaning to Reliability Test. Under the new formula, which made speed the most important characteristic of the modern airplane, the National Air Tour ended its 4,900-mile trip at Detroit last week as the most exacting and exhaustive demonstration ever conducted on a fleet of representative commercial and training airplanes. ... The flying of the pilots was declared perfect, and the technique and navigation of Miss Nancy Hopkins, only woman pilot, Edward Schneider and Truman Wadlow, three of the youngest pilots in the troupe, was equal to that of the older and more experienced racing pilots. In winning the Great Lakes Trophy for light planes in the tour Schneider beat out pilots who had a much better wingpower load ratio by sheer speed and good navigation. ... Cessna; Schneider; 8th overall finish; Warner engine; 110 HP; 1,225 pounds; 1,035 useful load; 47,488.0 points; 113.1 mph average.”

New York Times; October 5, 1930; page 22; “Buck in California sets flight record; New Jersey youth hour 8 minutes under Schneider's transcontinental mark.” Note: Robert Nietzel Buck breaks Eddie Schneider's record.

New York Times; October 19, 1930; page 9; “2 claim air records from Pacific here. Miss Ingalls and Robert Buck both complete interrupted transcontinental flights. Two transcontinental pilots, each claiming a record in flying time but each of whom has been on the way from Los Angeles for several days, landed yesterday at airports in the metropolitan district. At Roosevelt Field, Hiss Laura Ingalls of New York who is the holder of the women's ...” Note: Robert Nietzel Buck breaks Eddie Schneider's record.

New York Times; July 5, 1931; page 12; “15 planes start reliability flight. Leave Detroit on National Air Tour, reach Walkerville, Ontario, and go on to Leroy, New York to cover 6,000 miles after a night's rest, pilots will go on today to Binghamton, New York. End the tour on July 25, 1931. Walkerville, Ontario, July 4, 1931 (Associated Press) Continuing their 6,000-mile flight, the fifteen contesting planes of the 1931 National Air Tour which started their series of flights from Detroit ...”

New York Times; July 10, 1931; page 11; “Harry Russell leads National Air Tour. Ten of 14 planes arrive in Knoxville, others are down. C.F. Sugg badly injured. Knoxville, Tennessee, July 9, 1931 (Associated Press) Four of the fourteen planes participating in the national air tour failed to arrive here from Huntingdon, West Virginia, today on account of a series of mishaps.”

New York Times; July 18, 1931; page 3; “Reach Fort Worth on Air Tour.”

New York Times; July 26, 1931; page 3; “Russell Again Wins National Air Tour. He Leads on Points as Fliers Sweep Bach Into Detroit Front 6,590-Mile Trip. Ford Company Gains Trophy. Detroit, July 25, 1931. Ford Company gains trophy. Detroit, Michigan; July 25, 1931. More than 15,000 Detroit aviation enthusiasts saw Harry L. Russell, a pilot for the Ford Motor Company, sweep into the Ford airport today to his second victory in the National Air Tour after having covered 6,590 miles. He won by more than 9,000 points. ... The close of the National Air Tour retired the present Edsel B. Ford Reliability Trophy. ... In finishing third this year, Eddie Schneider, who also holds the junior transcontinental ...”

New York Times; June 24, 1934; page N3; “Marriage Announced Of Gretchen Hahnen. Jersey City Girl Wed tTo Eddie A. Schneider, Aviator, Here On June 2. Jersey City, New Jersey, June 23, 1934. The marriage on June 2 of Gretchen Hahnen of Jersey City, New Jersey governor of the Women's International Aeronautic Association, and Eddie A. Schneider of Jersey City, who in 1928, at age of 16 was the youngest air pilot to hold a commercial license, was announced today. The couple was married at the New York Municipal Building. Miss Hahnen, daughter of Mrs. Zora M. Hahnen of Des Moines, Iowa, and Mr. Schneider met when Miss Hahnen was organizing the Jersey City Junior Aeronautical Association, of which Mr. Schneider was sponsor. In 1930 Mr. Schneider broke the transcontinental junior speed record by lowering the mark of the late Frank Goldsborough. Mr. Schneider won the Great Lakes Trophy in the Ford national reliability tour in 1930 and in the 1931 tour he won first place for single-motored planes. He was director of the aviation division of the Hoover Business League in 1932. After July 1 the couple will live in Jersey City. Mr. Schneider is the son of Emil A. Schneider of North Arlington.”

New York Times; May 16, 1935; page 25; “Two In Plane Escape In Newark Bay Crash. Two aviators escaped with only minor bruises and a thorough wetting last night when their three-seat, open-cockpit biplane developed motor trouble soon after taking off from the Jersey City Airport and fell into Newark Bay 200 feet off Droyer's Point, Jersey City. The men were rescued by police, who went to their aid in a collapsible rowboat kept at the field. The plane [had] taken off at 7 pm [piloted] by Edward Schneider, 23 years old, of 209 Sip Avenue, Jersey City, former holder of the junior transcontinental plane record and manager of the airport since January 1, 1935. Schneider had as a passenger, Fred Weigel, 31, of 77 Lembeck Avenue, Jersey City, a flying student. Schneider said later at the Administration building, where he and Weigel were drying their clothes, that the plane had not gained more than 100 feet altitude when the engine failed. He could not explain the motor trouble. Schneider said he guided the plane to the water which was eight feet deep at that point. The plane struck and sank into the mud bottom, while Schneider and Weigel floundered about in the water and finally got on top of a wing. Persons at the airport had seen the accident and called the police. Schneider and Weigel refused medical attention. Schneider said the plane, which was secured to the shore by ropes, would be salvaged today.”

New York Times; September 22, 1935; page 12; “Robert Buck: Boy pilot delays flight.”

New York Times; September 26, 1935; page 18; “Jersey City to Get WPA Stadium Fund. Mayor Hague Reports Application for $800,000 Approved for Arena at Airport. Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City announced yesterday he had been informed that the Works Progress Administration had approved the city's application for an $800,000 grant to build a municipal sports stadium. ... The Jersey City Airport is now rented at a nominal charge to Eddie Schneider, who gives flying lessons there. ...” Note: Eddie August Schneider loses his airport.

New York Times; September 30, 1935; page 24; “Robert Buck: Boy flier reaches Indiana on long hop.”

New York Times; November 21, 1936; “4 Americans in Spain to Fly for Madrid. Acosta and Three Mates Reach Valencia to Take Course in Military Aviation. Bert Acosta, one of this country's leading racing pilots, and four other fliers from fields in the Newark district have arrived at Valencia, Spain, where they will go through a hurried course in military flying before taking the air against the Rebels, it was revealed here yesterday. ...”

New York Times; January 1, 1937; page 17; “Amazed by Acosta, Rebel Fliers Fled. American in sports ship flew into midst of foe thinking they were Russians. With stories of each other's adventures and none about their own, Bert Acosta, Gordon Berry, Eddie Schneider and Frederick Lord returned to Paris this morning from two months' experience in the civil war in Spain.”

New York Times; January 16, 1937; page 3; “Flier Says Lawyer Sent Him to Spain. Schneider names New Yorker as giving him ticket to join loyalist army. Promised $1,500 a month, but he was never paid, so he quit, witness declares - tells story to U.S. officials. Eddie Schneider, 25-year-old aviator, who recently returned to the United States after serving a month in the so-called Yankee Squadron with the Spanish Loyalists, said yesterday that a New York lawyer had negotiated with him for his services abroad. Schneider, who began his career as a flier in 1928, appeared at the Federal Building, where he was questioned by John F. Dailey Jr., Chief Assistant United States Attorney. Mr. Dailey, who last Thursday questioned Bert Acosta and Gordon K. Berry, both of whom served in the same squadron, is conducting an investigation to determine if the service of the Yankee Squadron in Spain was a violation of a federal statute. That statute provides: 'Whoever, within the territory or jurisdiction of the United States, enlists or enters himself, or hires or retains another person to enlist or enter himself, or to go beyond the limits or jurisdiction of the United States with intent to be enlisted or entered in the service of any foreign prince, state colony, district or people as a soldier or as a marine, or seaman on board of any vessel of war, letter or marquee, or privateer, shall be fined not more than $1,000 and imprisoned not more than 4 years.' According to Schneider, the lawyer told him that he would be paid $1,500 a month for his services in the air force and would receive a bonus of $1,000 for every Rebel plane he shot down. The lawyer, he said, gave him his steamship ticket. Schneider, in an interview with newspapermen, said that he had quit Spain because the Loyalist Government had not carried out its obligations under a contract signed in Valencia. The only money he received, he said, came from the Spanish Embassy in Paris, which paid his fare back to the United States. Colonel Lewis Landes, attorney for Schneider, interrupted to say on behalf of his client that Schneider had really quit Spain because he wished to comply with President Roosevelt's neutrality program. Schneider said that Major Thomas Lamphier was still abroad flying for the Loyalists. He said that he himself had taken part in bombing raids daily for about three weeks. The bombers, he said were remodeled sport planes, and the bombs were dropped through floor openings.”

New York Times; January 17, 1937; page 30; “Declares Terms of Contracts Were Met and No Money is Now Due Them. Denial By Their Lawyer He Asserts Acosta, Schneider and Berry Got Some Funds on Friday, but Not Enough. While there were no developments yesterday in the United States Attorney's investigation of the procurement of Americans for service in Spain, the acting consul general for Spain and the attorney for American aviators who served the Loyalist cause issued conflicting statements regarding the pay they received. The consul general, Luis Careaga said: "The Spanish consulate general in New York feels impelled to acquaint the American public, so as to protect the good name of Spain and the government of the republic, that if contracts were entered into with a few American aviators in Spain all the clauses therein have been fulfilled with them, as per arrangements contained in the said clauses and, therefor, absolutely no moneys are due to the said aviators." "Spain is a nation that has always fulfilled her contracts, for it will be remembered that she is one of the few countries who has no pending debts with the United States." In behalf of Bert Acosta, Gorden Berry and Edward Schneider, who have been questioned under subpoena by John F. Dailey, Acting Chief Assistant United States Attorney, their attorney. Lewis M. Landes, said the fliers had received some money at the consulate Friday afternoon, but that it was not sufficient. Mr. Landes declined to reveal what the sums were adding "I have sent a communication to the Spanish consul general saying that unless the entire sum is paid in full I shall institute further legal action toward collecting it." Acosta and Berry are owed $1,500 each and Schneider $1,250 under their contract the lawyer says.”

New York Times; February 6, 1937; page 4; “Lanphier was not in Spain. Major did not fly for loyalist forces as reported. In the late editions of The New York Times of January 16, 1937, and in the early editions of January 17, 1937 there appeared an item concerning the return of Eddie Schneider, aviator, from serving a month in the so-called Yankee Squadron with the Spanish Loyalists and Schneider's appearance at the Federal Building, where he was questioned by John F. Dailey Jr., Chief Assistant United States ...”

New York Times; December 24, 1940; page 15; “2 Die As Planes Crash At Field. Eddie Schneider, who started flying when he was 15 years old and set a junior transcontinental record in 1930 at the age of 18, was killed with a student passenger yesterday when their light training plane was in collision with a Naval Reserve plane, also on a training flight, just west of Floyd Bennett Field. The Naval Reserve plane landed safely at the field but Schneider's plane went into a spin, tore off a wing, and crashed into Deep Creek, a few hundred feet across Flatbush Avenue from the city airport in Brooklyn. Both Schneider and his passenger, George W. Herzog, 37, a contractor living at 535 North Second Street, New Hyde Park, Long Island, were dead when their bodies were pulled from the submerged wreckage. At the Naval Reserve base at Floyd Bennett Field it was said the Navy biplane, a Stearman trainer, had been piloted by Ensign Kenneth A. Kuehner, 25, of Minister, Ohio, with Second Class Seaman Frank Newcomer, of Rochester, Ohio, as a passenger. The right lower wing of the naval plane, the left upper wing and the propeller were damaged. The third accident, in two weeks in which a Naval Reserve plane based at Floyd Bennett Field was involved, it brought the comment from Dock Commissioner John McKenzie that it was the sort of thing to be expected "where there are training: flights at an airport." "That is the point that Mayor La Guardia has been making". Mr. McKenzie said, 'in his efforts to keep training away from commercial fields.' Police said the witnesses to the accident were agreed that the Naval Reserve plane was crossing above the plane piloted by Schneider, a high-wing Piper Tandem Cub monoplane, as the two approached the field for a landing 600 feet above Deep Creek, Schneider's plane went into a tight spin as the two planes disengaged after colliding, the witnesses said, appeared to straighten out and then plummeted into the water as its left wing tore loose. Many would-be rescuers were on the scene within, a few moments, including police, Coast Guardsmen and fliers from Floyd Bennett Field. The bodies of the two men were pulled quickly from the wreckage and onto a half-submerged barge near which the plane fell, but it appeared both had been killed when the plane hit the water. Joseph Hanley, first assistant district attorney of Kings County, opened an investigation at the scene and a naval board of inquiry, headed by Commander H. R. Bowes, was ordered convened by the Navy Department in Washington. Schneider lived at 32-50 Seventy-third Street, Jackson Heights, Queens. He leaves a widow. Herzog leaves a widow and two children. He had been flying some time, holding a limited commercial pilot's license, but had enrolled for a refresher course with the Archie Baxter Flying Service, Inc., owner of the plane. Schneider was an instructor at the school. The bodies of the two men were taken to Floyd Bennett Field pending funeral arrangements. Schneider first gained public attention as a flier in the Summer of 1930 when he announced plans for an attempt to break the junior transcontinental east-west record of 34 hours 57 minutes set the year before by 15-year-old Frank Goldsborough, who was later killed. Taking off from Westfield, New Jersey, August 14, he landed at Los Angeles four days later with a new elapsed time mark of 29 hours 55 minutes. He then flew the west-east passage in 27 hours 19 minutes to better Goldsborough's time for that flight and also for the round trip. He continued active in aviation, competing in National Air Tours, races, and as an instructor. He went to Spain in 1936 to fly for the Loyalists, but returned the next year without having collected the $1,500-a-month pay that was promised him. He and other American fliers were looked on with suspicion by many of the Loyalists, he said, because they were not Communists. Schneider had a narrow escape from death May 15, 1935, when the engine of his training plane failed and it fell into Newark Bay with him and a student passenger shortly after they had taken off from Jersey City Airport, of which he then was manager. Schneider's father, Emil, a Jersey City banker, financed his son's transcontinental flight after having first opposed his efforts to become a flier. The boy had quit school at 15 and worked as a mechanic at Roosevelt Field, Mineola, Long Island, and at the Westfield airport to secure money for flying lessons. He was the youngest licensed flier in the country when he received a limited commercial license shortly after his eighteenth birthday in 1929.”

New York Times; January 1, 1941; “Private Fliers Want New Queens Airport. Negotiations Under Way to Build Municipal Field. Negotiations between Queens officials and private aviation units looking toward the establishment in Queens of a municipal airport for private fliers were announced yesterday in a letter from Borough President George U. Harvey of Queens to Mayor La Guardia. ...It was announced yesterday at Floyd Bennett Field that the Civil Aeronautics Board would hold a public hearing on January 9 at the field's Administration Building into the crash on December 23 near the Brooklyn Airport of a Naval Reserve training plane and a plane of the Archie Baxter Flying Service. Eddie Schneider and George Wilson Herzog were killed.”

New York Times; September 18, 1961; “Early Fliers Hail Women Aviators. Westhampton, Long Island, September 17, 1961. The widows of two early record-holding airmen were honored here today at the fourth annual meeting of the Early Fliers Club of Long Island. The guests of honor ... Gretchen Schneider Black of Goldsboro, North Carolina.”

Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles Times; August 18, 1930; page 1, “Young Aviator Forced Down.”
Los Angeles Times; October 2, 1930; page 1; “Boy Air Racer Reaches Texas.”
Los Angeles Times; August 19, 1930; “Boy Flyer Sets Junior Air Record. Schneider Arrives from Jersey City Making Trip in 29 Hours and 11 [sic] Minutes. Hatless, coatless, his face chalk white in the glare of powerful flood lights, 18-year-old Edward Schneider crawled from the control cabin of has little Cessna monoplane last evening at Los Angeles Municipal Airport -- New Junior transcontinental flight, air champion with a ...”
Los Angeles Times; June 5, 1932; page D4; “Aviators To Work For President. Doolittle to Head List of Flyers Who Will Speak for Hoover. Maj. James H. (Jimmie) Doolittle heads the list of famous flyers who have volunteered to work for the re-election of President Hoover in appreciation of his strong support of aeronautics, it was announced yesterday by Don R. Mockler, director of the aviation division, Hoover ... Eddie A. Schneider, America's outstanding junior flyer and co-director of the division, has mapped the course of a 14.000-mile flight to reach every important city ...”
Los Angeles Times; November 22, 1936; “Yankee Pilots Foes in Spain.”
Los Angeles Times; December 25, 1936; “Bert Acosta's Flyers Ravage Rebels' Base.”

Washington Post; Washington, District of Columbia

The Washington Post; August 12, 1930; page 5; “Youth, 19, to Try Today For Record U.S. Hop. Westfield, New Jersey, August 11, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 19, Jersey City High School graduate, announced today he will take off at dawn tomorrow from the local airport in an attempt to break the transcontinental speed records set two months ago by the late Frank Goldsborough.”

The Washington Post; August 18, 1930; page 4; “Schneider Planned Take-Off at Dawn to Complete Hop to Albuquerque. Albuquerque, New Mexico, August 17, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old flier seeking to establish a junior transcontinental flight record, was forced to land near Anton Chico, 100 miles east of here, late today, en route from Wichita, Kansas, to Albuquerque. The young flier telephoned airport officials here he would remain overnight at Anton Chico and take off at daybreak tomorrow for Albuquerque. He is expected here about 6:30 am (Mountain Standard Time).”

The Washington Post; August 24, 1930; page 4; “Schneider in Ohio On Record Flight. Clouds and Mists Compel Boy Flier to Descend at Columbus. Columbus, Ohio, August 23, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey City aviator, will leave here on the final lap of his East-West transcontinental flight in quest of the record held by the late Frank Goldsborough at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning.”

The Washington Post; August 25, 1930; page 1; “Boy Pilot, 18, Lowers Three Flight Marks; Eddie Schneider Lowers Goldsborough Records Through Hop. Roosevelt Field, New York, August 24, 1930 (Associated Press) Eighteen-year-old Eddie Schneider, of Jersey City, New Jersey, landed here from Columbus, Ohio, at 3:03 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) today with three junior transcontinental records in his possession.”

The Washington Post; August 26, 1930; page 18; “Jersey City Mayor Greets Schneider; Walker Will Also Receive Boy Flier; to Take Part in National Races. Jersey City, New Jersey, August 25, 1930 (Associated Press) Eighteen-year-old Eddie Schneider, holder of three junior transcontinental flight records, was received by Mayor Frank Hague on the steps of the city hall today.”

The Washington Post; October 10, 1930; page 11; “Cross-Country Plane Race By Woman and Boy Looms; Laura Ingalls and Robert Buck to Take Off From California Today in Pursuit of New West-East Transcontinental Records.” Note: Robert Buck beats Eddie's record.

The Washington Post; January 7, 1937; page 5; “Yankee Fliers Quit.”

The Washington Post; January 16, 1937; page 7; “Aviator Says New York Attorney Is Leftist Agent. New York, January 15, 1937 (Associated Press) Back from a month of dropping bombs on behalf of the Spanish loyalist government, Eddie Schneider, Jersey City, New Jersey, aviator, said today he was signed up by a New York lawyer to serve in the Spanish war at $1,500 a month. Schneider was questioned by Assistant United States Attorney John F. Dailey, Jr. who announced he would seek indictments from the Federal grand jury next week against several New Yorkers in connection with their enlistment of American aviators for Spanish service. Interviewed as entered Dailey's office, Schneider said the lawyer negotiated with him for his services and handed him his steamship ticket for transportation to Spain. The flier said he quit the war to comply with President Roosevelt's neutrality policy, and that the Spanish Embassy in Paris advanced him his fare home pending payment of his salary. Schneider said he participated in daily bombing raids in Spain for three weeks, flying remodeled sports planes and dropping bombs through a hole in the cockpit floor. He has a record of more than 2,000 air hours since 1928, and has set several transcontinental flying records, he said. He left here six weeks ago with Major Fred Lord, who is still in Spain. Dailey said it was unlikely the grand jury would hear testimony from Bert Acosta and Major Gordon Berry, free-lance fliers who returned yesterday from Spain and, whom Dailey questioned, but that agencies hiring Americans for Spanish service would be prosecuted "to the limit." The district attorney said Federal agents were investigating the stories told by Acosta and Berry.”

The Washington Post; January 17, 1937; page 5; “U.S. Socialists Sift Volunteers To Fight Rebels. Federal Inquiry Gaining Impetus. Ambulance Unit Sails. New York, January 16, 1937 (Associated Press) A personnel committee began sifting applicants who want to fight for the Spanish loyalist government today, while Federal officials continued their investigation into possible law violations in recruiting Americans for military service in Spain.”

The Washington Post; January 20, 1937; page 5; “3 U.S. Airmen Here to Explain Aid to Loyalists. Acosta, Berry, Schneider Fly to Capital With Their Attorney. Back from the broken harvests of the bloody Spanish war, the famed triumvir of American air fighters – Bert Acosta, Gordon Berry and Eddie Schneider – flew into Washington Airport yesterday all set to do some tall explaining to the Federal Government. Apparently none the worse for the wear and tear of the bitter civil conflict, now in its sixth month, the trio who quit because "it would be suicide to continue" and because their actions "might not be in tune with the spirit of neutrality", talked freely with newsmen about the reasons that motivated their enlistment. "I was broke, hungry, jobless," 25-year-old Schneider, who is married and has a family in New York, said. "Yet despite the fact that all three of us are old-time aviators who did our part for the development of the industry were left out in the cold in the Administration’s program of job making. Can you blame us for accepting the lucrative Spanish offer?" While other airmen – British and French – were afforded a two-week courtesy for training, American fliers were just shown to loyalist hangars, given a plane and and ordered to do their stuff. "We were flying old crates," Acosta said, “while other nationalists were given modern ships. But for the protection afforded us by Soviet pursuit planes we would not be alive now to tell you this tale." All three had the highest praise for the Russian flyers and nothing but scorn for the Moors. "They are the traditional enemies of the Spaniard," Berry said. "Spain is not fighting a civil war but an invasion.” Denying news reports that they dropped bombs over Burgos as a Christmas Day greeting for the fascist rebel junta, the fliers said that they spent the holidays in Barcelona, the capital of the autonomous state of Barcelona. Once they stared death in the face. That was in the Catalan capitol when all unwittingly they tuned in on Rome in a restaurant radio and had a band blare forth with the Fascist anthem. "It was a close call." The youthful Schneider said, "we almost got shot as agents provocateur." Unpaid, and hearing of repercussions back home from the British Ambassador in Bilboa, the trio made up their minds to quit the conflict for good. "This was a mess," Schneider explained, "and there was always that never-ending jockeying for the power among the factions to contend with, it got to the point where we did not know who we were fighting and why, and you can say that we are damn glad to be back." The three fliers were accompanied here by their attorney, Colonel Lewis Landes, of New York, an officer in the Reserve Corps. They came here voluntarily to see various Government officials, but the State Department not on their calling list. In the afternoon they had lunch at the Army and Navy Club and discussed modern fighting methods with Colonel Richards. The latter was interested in the war value of pursuit ships and questioned the trio on the observations. Tomorrow all three have an appointment with Senator Ashurst on neutrality legislation. They also will be questioned by the Justice and Commerce departments, but they did not disclose the nature of the conferences. Regarding the pay owed them by the Spanish Government, Landes disclosed that all three received "about $500 apiece" Monday from "the Spanish counsel" in New York. He did not disclose the latter’s identity. Meanwhile, representative McCormack (Democrat), of Massachusetts, was requesting of Secretary of State Cordell Hull a State Department inquiry into whether a Spanish consul in New York had paid American aviators to serve in the Spanish civil war. In a letter he demanded a withdrawal of the counsel's credentials if there had been any violation of the United States or international law. McCormack told newsmen that a special House investigating committee, of which he is chairman, had revealed that "certain foreign governments" had no compunction about using their diplomatic representatives to this country to further their plans and "violate international laws.”

The Washington Post; September 20, 1937; page 14; “New York, September 21, 1937. The State Department is still holding up the passport of Captain Eddie Schneider, the holder of the junior transcontinental flying record, because be flew for the loyalists in Spain. Bert Acosta and Gordon Berry also can't get their passports, for the same reason. The Government officials assured Schneider that they would issue the passport to him, on condition that he secure affidavits from Acosta and Berry, attesting to their knowledge that Schneider never foreswore allegiance to America.”

The Washington Post; October 21, 1937; “The State Department which has held up the passports of Capt. Eddie Schneider, former holder of the junior transcontinental flying record - on the grounds that he isn't a citizen - now admits it was joking.”

The Washington Post; December 24, 1940; “2 Die After Planes Collide in Mid-Air. Brooklyn, December 23, 1940 (International News Service) Two civilian fliers, one an American veteran of the Spanish Civil War, were killed today, in a mid-air collision between their plans and a naval reserve plane. The victims of the crash were Edward Schneider, who flew for the Loyalists in Spain, and George W. Herzog, a student. Their monoplane scraped wings with a Naval Reserve plane piloted by Ensign Kenneth Kuehner, who pulled his ship out of a spin and landed safely with Franklin Newcomber, a seaman who was a passenger in the service plane.”

Chicago Tribune; Chicago, Illinois

Chicago Tribune; August 25, 1930. “Three Records Set by Boy Flyer. Schneider to Attend Air Races in Chicago. Eighteen year old Eddie Schneider of Jersey City, New Jersey landed here from Columbus, Ohio, at 3:03 p. m. (Eastern Standard Time) today with three junior transcontinental records in his possession. He will fly to Chicago tomorrow for the air races.”

The Hartford Courant; Hartford, Connecticut

The Hartford Courant; August 15, 1930; page 2; “Rain, Fog Halt Flyer's Record Try.”
The Hartford Courant; August 16, 1930; page 18; “Schneider At St. Louis in Record Try.”
The Hartford Courant; August 18, 1930; page 1; “Connecticut Flyer Second In Air Race.”
The Hartford Courant; August 20, 1930; page 11; “Hartford-Chicago Derby Flyers Will Arrive Here Today.”
The Hartford Courant; August 22, 1930; page 2; “Hoover Sends Greetings To Air Meeting.”
The Hartford Courant; August 23, 1930; page 2; “Schneider Lands at Wichita.”
The Hartford Courant; August 23, 1930; page 12; photograph
The Hartford Courant; August 24, 1930; page 8B; “Schneider at Columbus.”
The Hartford Courant; August 25, 1930; page 2; “Junior Flyer Sets 3 New Speed Marks.”
The Hartford Courant; August 26, 1930; page 12; photograph
The Hartford Courant; September 12, 1930; page 1; “Airplanes Reach Chicago on First Leg Of 4,500-Mile Tour.”
The Hartford Courant; September 25, 1930; page 16; photograph
The Hartford Courant; October 1, 1930; page 12; photograph
The Hartford Courant; October 4, 1930; page 6; “Buck Making Record Flight Due to Reach Los Angeles Today.”
The Hartford Courant; October 19, 1930; page 8C; “West-East Flyers Make New Records.”
The Hartford Courant; December 15, 1930; page 3; “Plans Flight Around the World. Boston; December 14, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, former holder of the junior trans-continental flight record, today announced he would hop off on a lone flight around the world next June. He said would leave from Roosevelt Field, New York, and make stops at Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Alaska, and Seattle. Schneider expects to make the flight in twenty-two days.”
The Hartford Courant; December 24, 1940; page 5; “Two Killed When Planes Collide at Bennett Field.”

Dallas Morning News; Dallas, Texas

Dallas Morning News; August 17, 1930; “Junior Flyer Reaches Wichita.”

Dallas Morning News; August 24, 1930; “Jimmy Haizlip Wins in Air as Flyer Wife Gets out of Hospital.”

Dallas Morning News; August 25, 1930; “German Ocean Flyers Reach Nova Scotia.”

Dallas Morning News; September 12, 1930; “End First Leg of Sky Tour.”

Dallas Morning News; September 29, 1930; “National Air Tour Success.”

Dallas Morning News; September 30, 1930; “Buck Lands Ship at Columbus, Ohio.”

Dallas Morning News; July 17, 1931; “Air Tour Flyers Land during Rain at San Antonio.”

Dallas Morning News; January 6, 1937; “U.S. Flier, Bombing Rebels for Madrid, Eyes Death, Lives.”

Dallas Morning News; January 16, 1937; “Paid $1,500 Month to Bomb Fascists, Yank Flier Says.”

Christian Science Monitor

Christian Science Monitor; August 19, 1930; “Junior Flight Record Set by 18-Year-Old Boy. Los Angeles (Associated Press) A slight, 18 year-old Jersey City youth, Eddie Schneider, today held the junior record for the fastest westward crossing of the United States. Landing at the municipal airport at dusk yesterday, the young flier completed his transcontinental crossing in a total flying time of 29 hours, 41 minutes, just 4 hours, 22 minutes less than required by the former holder, the late Frank Goldsborough, of New York. Schneider left Westfield, New Jersey August 14, 1930, flying only during the daytime. He said he experienced much stormy weather along the route and damaged his plane slightly once when he struck a tree in landing at Altoona, Pennsylvania.”

Christian Science Monitor; Friday, August 22, 1930; “Junior Pilot Flies Over San Bernardinos. Albquerque, New Mexico (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider took off at 7:55 a.m. Aug. 22 for Wichita, Kansas, on the second lap of his attempt to lower the junior ...”

Christian Science Monitor; July 8, 1931; “Ford Tour Pilots Reach Columbus. Columbus, Ohio, July 8, 1930 (Associated Press) Pilots in the Edsel B. Ford Reliability Tour checked in at Port Columbus here today in the following order: ...”

Christian Science Monitor; November 23, 1936; “Wings Over Neutrality. A cable to relatives in New York announces that three crack American aviators have arrived at Valencia to aid the Spanish Government. One is Bert Acosta, who flew the Atlantic with Rear Admiral Byrd in 1927. He is ranked in the trade as a "natural" at flying, one of the most deft and intuitive flyers that ...”

Chronological

1930 Junior Transcontinental Speed Record

August 14, 1930; Westfield, New Jersey to Altoona, Pennsylvania

Newark Advocate; Newark, Ohio; Thursday, August 14, 1930; “Youth is After Junior Record. Westfield, New Jersey, August 14, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18 year old pilot took off at 5:55 am (Eastern Daylight Time) today in an attempt to set a new junior transcontinental flight record. The present record was established by the late Frank Goldsborough, who made the trip in 33 hours, 35 minutes. He plans to make his first stop at Columbus, for fuel and a second refueling stop at St. Louis. At Wichita, Kansas, he plans to spend the night while a 250 gallon tank is fitted into his plane. The last stage of the flight will be to Alhambra, California, which he hopes to reach by tomorrow night.”

San Mateo Times; San Mateo, California; Thursday, August 14, 1930; “Edward Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey City High school graduate, took off at ... today in his Cessna cabin monoplane in an attempt to lower ...”

Augusta Chronicle; August, Georgia; Friday, August 15, 1930; “Seeks Record. Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Westfield, New Jersey flier ... Boy Flier Seeks New Speed Record. Plans To Hop Off On Transcontinental Flight This Morning. Altoona, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1930 (Associated Press) A narrow escape from disaster was related by Eddie Schneider ... Schneider said he hoped to reach Los Angeles with an elapsed time lower than the record of 33 hours and 35 minutes.”

August 15, 1930

Altoona Tribune of Altoona, Pennsylvania on August 16 1930; “Junior Coast-to-Coast Flight Record Seeker Lands in St. Louis. (Associated Press) ...”

Riverside Daily Press; Riverside, California; Friday, August 15, 1930; “Seeks Junior Title. Altoona, Pennsylvania, August 15, 1930 (United Press) Eddie Schneider, 18-year old Jersey City high school student, took off from Stutz Field here at 11:30 a.m., Eastern Standard Time today, resuming his trans-continental flight. Schneider, attempting to break the junior transcontinental flight record, headed for Columbus, Ohio.”

Meriden Record; Meriden, Connecticut; Friday, August 15, 1930; “New Jersey Flier Makes Two Forced Landings in Penna. Eddie Schneider Seeking Junior Trans - Continental Record Has Narrow Escape. Altoona, Pennsylvania; August 14, 1930 (Associated Press) A narrow escape from disaster was related by Eddie Schneider, 18 year old Westfield, New jersey, pilot on his arrival tonight by plane from Water Street at Schultz airport near Altoona from where ... hopping off westward ... in an attempt to set a new record in transcontinental east to west flight. ... It was Schneider's first warning that he was flying so low, he said. Schneider, upon determining at Water Street that the damage was slight, flew to Altoona ... ”

Coshocton Tribune; Coshocton, Ohio; Friday, August 15, 1930; “For the third time, after a ten mile hop from Water Street, where rain and clouds sent his Cessna monoplane to the ground late yesterday, Edward Schneider ... ”

Van Wert Daily Bulletin; Van Wert, Ohio; Friday, August 15, 1930; “Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey City youth, was planning to take off ... ”

Syracuse Herald; Syracuse, New York; August 15, 1930; “18-Year-Old Flier Hops from Altoona On Flight to Coast. Altoona, Pennsylvania, August 15, 1930 (United Press) Eddie Schneider ... run into clearer weather.”

Clearfield Progress; Clearfield, Pennsylvania; Friday, August 15, 1930; “Boy Aviator Forced To Land, But Arises Again. Stultz Field, Williamsburg, Pennsylvania; August 15, 1930 (International News Service) Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey City aviator, took off from here for Columbus, Ohio, at 12:30 p.m. today. Schneider, attempting to lower the junior transcontinental flying record set by the late Frank Goldsborough, was forced down here after rain and low clouds had forced him to descend at Huntington and Water Street, Pennsylvania, yesterday. Schneider refueled his 110 horsepower Cessna monoplane here and said he would stop to refuel again at Columbus. Flying conditions west were reported favorable.”

August 16, 1930

Tampa Tribune; Tampa, Florida; Saturday, August 16, 1930; “Seeks Air Record. Eddie Schneider. St. Louis, Missouri; August 15, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18, who is attempting to set a new junior trans-continental air revcord, landed at Lambert-St. Louis field here at 7:04 tonight from Columbus, Ohio. The youthful airman said he would spend the night here, probably leaving for Wichita, Kansas tomorrow morning.”

Evening Tribune; San Diego, California; Saturday, August 16, 1930; “Schneider Off To Wichita. St. Louis, Missouri, August 16, 1930(Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18, Westfield, New Jersey youth who is attempting to establish a new junior transcontinental flight record‘L took off from Lambert-St. Louis field at 1:25 p.m. today for Wichita. Schneider flew here yesterday from Columbus, Ohio, and spent last night here. Low visibility and threatening storms held him here this morning. He had planned to take off before noon. His elapsed time from Westfield was 8 hours and 38 minutes.”

August 17, 1930

Decatur Daily Review; Decatur, Illinois; Sunday, August 17, 1930; “Youthful flyer lands in Wichita. Wichita, Kansas; August 16, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, eighteen-year-old Westfield, New Jersey youth, attempting to establish a new junior transcontinental flight record, arrived here tonight at 7:45, He had left St. Louis at 1:25 pm Schneider was delayed in the arrival here by a severe wind and rain storm which visited this section late this afternoon. It was thought for a time he had been forced down somewhere between here and St. Louis. He was delayed in taking off from St. Louis by low visibility and threatening storms. The junior flyer's elapsed time from Westfield to Wichita was 14 hours and 58 minutes.”
Aberdeen Daily News, Aberdeen, South Dakota; Sunday, August 17, 1930; “In Search of Record. Photo is of Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey City pilot who arrived in Wichita, Kansas last night en route east on a flight in which he hopes to establish a new junior trans-continental record.”

August 18, 1930

Decatur Daily Review; Decatur, Illinois; Monday, August 18, 1930; “Schneider On Last Stage of Flight. Albuquerque, New Mexico; August 18, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old pilot attempting to set a new junior transcontinental flight record, left Albuquerque at 7:40 a.m. (Mountain Standard Time) today for Los Angeles, expecting to finish his flight from New York without another stop. The young flyer landed here at 5:55 am from Anton Chico, New Mexico where he was forced to stop last night because of bad weather. The weather between Albuquerque and Los Angeles was favorable for Schneider's final hop. He hoped to reach Los Angeles by 1 pm (Pacific Standard Time).”

Repository; Canton, Ohio; Monday, August 18, 1930; “Young Flier Takes Off On Final Leg Of Trip. (International News Service) Albuquerque, New Mexico, August 18, 1930. Eddie Schneider, the 18-year-old flyer who is attempting to set a new junior transcontinental speed flight record, took off from Albuquerque at 8:85 this morning for Los Angeles, his final destination. He hopes to make the final leg of the flight without a stopover.”

Van Wert Daily Bulletin; Van Wert, Ohio; Monday, August 18, 1930; “Albuquerque, New Mexico. August 18, 1930 (International News Service) Eddie Schneider, the 18-year-old who is attempting to set a new junior transcontinental speed flight record, took off from Albuquerque, New Mexico at 8:05 o'clock this morning for Los Angeles, his final destination. He hopes to make the final leg of the flight without a stopover. Schneider was forced down yesterday evening in Santa Rosa, East of here by a storm and spent the night there. He landed here at 5:30 am today, breakfasted leisurely, went over his plane, refueled and then took in quest of the new record. He claims to be several hours ahead of the old record.”

Newark Advocate; Newark, Ohio; Monday, August 18, 1930; “Boy Pilot In Air. Albuquerque, New Mexico; August 18, 1930. (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider 18 year old pilot attempting to set a new transcontinental flight record left Albuquerque at 7:40 am (Mountain Standard Time) today for Los Angeles expecting to finish his flight from New York without another stop.”

August 19, 1930

Newark Advocate; Newark, Ohio; Tuesday, August 19, 1930; “Junior Record For Long Hop. Los Angeles, California; August 19, 1930 (Associated Press) A slight, 18-year-old Jersey City youth, Eddie Schneider, today held the junior record for the fastest westward crossing of the United States. Landing at the municipal airport at dusk yesterday, the young flier completed his transcontinental crossing in a total flying time of 29 hours, 41 minutes, just 4 hours, 22 minutes less than required by the former holder, the late Frank Goldsborough, of New York. Schneider left Westfield, New Jersey August 14, 1930, flying only during the daytime. He said he experienced much stormy weather along the route and damaged his plane slightly once when he struck a tree in landing at Altoona, Pennsylvania.”

Coshocton Tribune; Coshocton, Ohio; Tuesday, August 19, 1930; “Edward Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey city school boy, was receiving ... landed his Cessna cabin plane at The Long Beach, got his bearings and 20 tack ... ”

Greensboro Record; Greensboro, North Carolina; Tuesday, August 19, 1930; “Winner Of Junior Fast Fight Record. Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey boy, winner of junior record for fastest westward crossing of United States, receives congratulations of his father. Youth Captures Flight Record. Eddie Schneider Makes Fastest Airplane Westward Crossing of United States. Los Angeles, August 19, 1930 (Associated Press) A slight, 18 year old Jersey City youth, Eddie Schneider, today held the junior record for the fastest record crossing of the United States. Landing at the ... set by Goldsborough.”

Seattle Daily Times; Seattle, Washington; Tuesday, August 19, 1930; “Flyer - Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey City, New Jersey, high school student who landed in Los Angeles yesterday, breaking junior transcontinental record.”

August 21, 1930

San Diego Union; San Diego, California; Thursday, August 21, 1930; “Boy Flier To Attempt New Record Hop Today. Los Angeles, California, August 20, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old aviator of Jersey City, New Jersey who set a new junior transcontinental speed record from east to west last Monday, said today he will leave here at 4 a.m. (Pacific Standard Time) tomorrow on a one-stop flight to New York in an attempt to set a new junior west-to-east record. ...”

Newark Advocate; Newark, Ohio; Thursday, August 21, 1930; “Schneider Is After Record. Municipal Airport, Los Angeles, August 21, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, newly crowned east-west junior transcontinental speed king, took of at 6:17:30 a.m. (Pacific Standard Time) today in an effort to establish a new west-east junior transcontinental air record. He planned to make his first stop at Albuquerque, New Mexico. Schneider recently covered the distance from Westfield, New Jersey to Los Angeles in 28 hours, 55 minutes, flying time, bettering the record of 29 hours, 41 minutes set by the late Frank Goldsborough. He hopes to reach the east coast in less time than the record of of 28 hours, 18 minutes set by Goldborough. Despite a load of 140 gallons of gasoline, Schneider pulled his little monoplane into a fast climb and quickly was out of sight.”

August 22, 1930

Decatur Daily Review; Decatur, Illinois; Friday, August 22, 1930; “Schneider Off On Trip To Wichita. Albuquerque, New Mexico, August 22, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, eighteen year old pilot, left at 7:55 a.m. today (Mountain Standard Time) today for Wichita, Kansas, on the second lap of his attempt to lower the junior west-east flight record of twenty-eight hours and thirty-five minutes, established by the late Frank Goldsborough. Schneider will stop at Wichita tonight and expects to reach New York tomorrow. His elapsed time from Los Angeles to Albuquerque was seven hours, twenty-eight minutes. He lost half an hour in circling to get over the San Bernardino mountains because of his heavy load of gasoline. His magneto compass also failed him and he was forced to fly by dead reckoning.”

Boston Herald; Boston, Massachusetts; Friday, August 22, 1930; “Eddie Schneider, left, greeted by Richard Barnitz, director of Los Angeles Airport, at finish of his record breaking transcontinental flight from New Jersey. Schneider's flying time was 29 hours 41 minutes. Boy Flier in N.M. on West-East Hop. Schneider Expects to Make 600-Mile Flight to Wichita in 6 Hours. Albequerque, New Mexico; August 21, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider who is attempting to set a west to east transcontinental junior flight record laned here at 3:15 P.M. (Mountains Standard Time) with elapsed time from Los Angeles of 7 hours 28 minutes. Schneider will spend the night here, ... and had arranged for its care.

August 23, 1930

Decatur Daily Review; Decatur, Illinois; Saturday, August 23, 1930; “Schneider Off On Non-Stop Flight. Wichita, Kansas, August 23, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, eighteen-year-old Jersey City youth seeking a junior west-to-east transcontinental record, left here at 6:15 am (Central Standard Time) ... junior fliers last week.”

Syracuse Herald; Syracuse, New York; August 23, 1930; “Schneider Off On Non-Stop Flight. Wichita, Kansas, August 23, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, eighteen-year-old Jersey City youth seeking a junior west-to-east transcontinental record, left here at 6:15 am (Central Standard Time) this morning. He hopes to reach New York today and set a new mark. The young flier planned to reach New York without stopping en route if possible Schneider left Los Angeles Thursday and stopped overnight in Albuquerque, New Mexico on his way here. His total elapsed time to Wichita was 13 hours and 40 minutes, well under the time required by the late Frank Goldsborough, whose junior west-east record of 28 hours and 55 minutes Schneider hopes to eclipse.”

August 24, 1930

Springfield Republican; Springfield, Massachusetts; Sunday, August 24, 1930; “Eddie Schneider At Columbus, Ohio. Jersey City Youth Flies From Wichita, Kansas, 800 Miles In Seven Hours and 45 Minutes. Columbus, Ohio, August 23, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey City aviator ... east-to-west transcontinental record last week.”

San Diego Union; San Diego, California; Sunday, August 24, 1930; “ Youth Will Hop for N.Y. Today. Eddie Schneider, in Quest of East-West Record, Completes Next-to-Last Hop. Columbus, Ohio, August 23, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, 18, of Jersey City will leave here on the final lap of his east-west transcontinental flight in quest of the record held by the late Frank Goldsborough at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning. The youthful birdman, who seeks the junior transcontinental speed crown, droned out of a murky sky at, Port Columbus. at 3:35 p.m., (Eastern Standard Time) today. The youthful flier will make a nonstop flight between here and Roosevelt field, New York, he said, tonight.”

August 25, 1930; Columbus, Ohio to Roosevelt Field, New York

Chicago Tribune; Chicago, Illinois; Monday, August 25, 1930; “Roosevelt Field, New York. (Associated Press) Eighteen year old Eddie Schneider of Jersey City, New Jersey landed here from Columbus, Ohio at 4:03 PM central time Sunday with three transcontinental records in his possession. He was greeted by his admiring father, Emil A. Schneider. He related his flight to a large crowd of relatives and friends, then took his plane, the Kangaroo, to the hangar to be readied to fly to Chicago for the air show.”

Decatur Evening Herald; Decatur, Illinois; Monday, August 25, 1930; “Sets junior transcontinental record, formerly held by Frank Goldsborough, boy ace who died in a crash recently, was lowered by Eddie Schneider, 18 year old flier, who made east to west crossing in elapsed flying time of 29 hours, and 41 minutes. Goldsborough's time was 34 hours and 3 minutes. Eddie is here seen being congratulated upon arrival at Los Angeles airport by Colonel Richard Barnitz, manager of the field.”

Coshocton Tribune; Coshocton, Ohio, Monday, August 25, 1930; “Boy Makes New Round Trip Mark. Eddie Schneider now holds coast-to-coast round trip junior flight record. Beats Goldsborough's. Cuts one hour, 36 minutes from time of young flyer recently killed in Vermont. Roosevelt Field, New York, August 25, 1930 (Associated Press) 'Hello, Pop, I made it.' That was the greeting to his father by happy Eddie Schneider, who today holds the coast-to-coast round trip junior flight record, as he ended this final leg of his trip. The 18-year old pilot landed here Sunday shortly after 4 p.m. as a crowd of 2,000 cheered. He completed the flight from Los Angeles in 27 hours, 19 minutes and made a round trip record of 57 hours and 41 minutes. His record broke by one hour and 36 minutes the round-trip time of Frank Goldborough, the boy flyer who was killed when his plane crashed in Vermont. Bucking strong winds, Schneider flew from Columbus to New York in a single day. He was not tired, he said, but hungry, having gone without food on the entire last leg of his trip. He plans to fly today to Chicago, where he will compete in the national air races. Young Schneider said he was impressed with the vast wastes in the west where he flew for more than 100 miles without sighting signs of habitation. He also was surprised, he said, at the large number of air hitchhikers. He refused rides to scores. The young pilot brought with him a letter from the Mayor of Los Angeles to Mayor Walker of New York and one to Mayor Hague of Jersey City, Schneider's home town.”

Times Recorder; Zanesville, Ohio; Monday, August 25, 1930; “Eddie Schneider Sets Junior Flying Records. Roosevelt Field, New York, August 24, 1930. (Associated Press) Eighteen-year-old Eddie Schneider of Jersey City, New Jersey landed here from Columbus, Ohio, (Eastern Standard Time) today with three junior transcontinental records in his possession. Beating the three records set by the late Frank Goldsborough, who was killed recently In a crash, he chalked up the following marks: east-west, 29 hours and 41 minutes; west-east, 27 hours and 19 minutes; round trip, 57 hours. The Goldsborough records were: west-east, 34 hours. 3 minutes; west-east. 28 hours, 55 minutes and round trip, 62 hours, 58 minutes. Battling a storm part of the way, the smiling junior flier came from Columbus to Roosevelt Field in one hop today, slicing one hour and 36 minutes from Goldsborough's mark for the coast-to-coast crossing.”
The Spokesman-Review; Spokane, Washington; Monday, August 25, 1930; “Eddie Schneider Victor. Now Holds Three Junior Air Marks Across U.S. Roosevelt Field, New York, August 24, 1930. (Associated Press) Eighteen year old Eddie Schneider of Jersey City, New Jersey landed here from Columbus, Ohio at 3:03 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) today with three junior transcontinental records in his possession. Beating the three records set by the late Frank Goldsborough, who was killed recently in a crash. He chalked up the following marks: East-west — 29 hours and 41 minutes. West-east, 27 hours and 19 minutes. Round trip 57 hours. The Goldsborough records were: East-west - 34 hours, 3 minutes. West-east, 28 hours, 55 minutes and round trip, 62 hours, 58 minutes.”

August 26, 1930

Daily Register Gazette; Rockford, Illinois; Tuesday, August 26, 1930; “Shatters Records. (By Pacific and Atlantic) Eddie Schneider, (above) a smiling a grimy, 18-year-old Jersey City, N. J., boy came down out of the clouds in his little red monoplane onto Roosevelt Field, L. I. with three continental air records in his possession. The East-West, the West-East and the round trip. All records were formerly held by Frank Goldsborough boy ace who died in crash recently.”

August 27, 1930

Van Wert Daily Bulletin; Van Wert, Ohio; Wednesday, August 27, 1930; “Waving a cheery hello, Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey City youth quits his Cessna monoplane on completion of his record flight from Los Angeles, California. Schneider's time of 26 hours and 38 1/2 minutes for the eastward coast-to-coast trip broke the late Frank Goldsborough's junior record by 1 hour and 29 1/2 minutes. Schneider now holds both junior records. His time for the westward flight is 29 hours and 21 minutes. (International Newsreels)”

August 28, 1930

Prescott Evening Courier; Prescott, Arizona; Thursday, August 28, 1930; “Curtiss-Reynolds Airport, Chicago, August 28, 1930 (Associated Press) Boys will be pilots, say Eddie and Walter and Eldon. Eddie Schneider is only 18, a curly-headed, Jersey City, New Jersey blonde, who has been flying two years and now holds the junior transcontinental records, both west-east and east-west. ... Flying his little red monoplane, with only 110 horse-power at his command, Eddie Schneider demonstrated to great throngs of air fans yesterday that despite his youth he has what fliers term the 'feel of the air.' He maneuvered his ship around the field with the nonchalant assurance of the great Marcel Doret of France, and as an added thrill he landed it and stopped it in a space of less than 600 feet. 'Father was against my flying,' related Eddie, 'but he's convinced now. In fact he's helping to back all my flights. All I want to do is fly.' 'I don't expect to win any of them, but I'll race for the fun of it,' he said. 'There will be too many ships with more power than mine in the races for me to win.' ”

1930 Robert Buck beats Schneider's record

Newark Advocate; Newark, Ohio; September 16, 1930; “Girl and boy of 19 are interesting pair in this year's Ford airplane tour.”

Decatur Daily Review; Decatur, Illinois; Saturday, September 27, 1930; “Boy flyer set to try at transcontinental record.” Robert Nietzel Buck seeks Eddie's record.

Decatur Daily Review; Decatur, Illinois; Monday, September 29, 1930; “Boy aviator in quest of record.” Robert Nietzel Buck seeks Eddie's record.

Decatur Daily Review; Decatur, Illinois; October 1, 1930; “Boy flier hops off second time.” Robert Nietzel Buck beats Eddie's record.

Decatur Daily Review; Decatur, Illinois; Sunday, October 5, 1930; “Boy flier plans return air trip.” Robert Nietzel Buck beats Eddie's record.

The Helena Independent; Helena, Montana; Sunday, October 19, 1930; “New transcontinental air speed marks were established today, one by a boy of 16 and the other by a young woman who already held records for barrel rolling and looping. The first in was Miss Laura Ingalls. who landed at Roosevelt field with a flying time of 25 hours and 35 minutes from Los Angeles. A little later Robert Buck dropped down at the Newark airport after 20? hours and 4? minutes in the air since leaving Los Angeles. Buck beat the Junior record made recently by his friend, Eddie Schneider. Miss Ingalls didn't beat any record because no woman had ever made an officially recorded flight from the west coast before, but she established a mark for other women to shoot at. Buck brought back with him junior record for both west and east directions and Miss Ingalls would have had two records too, If she had not had such keen competition. She flew out in 30 hours and 27 minutes, but before she ... to turn around ... start back Mr. Keith Miller cut the record 21 hours and 44 [minutes].”

Air Races

1930 National Air Tour

Philadelphia Bulletin Almanac; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 1931 “The surprise of the 1930 tour was in youthful Eddie Schneider, holder of the junior transcontinental speed record at that time, winning the Great Lakes Trophy, in leading pilots of the low horsepower class. Schneider [had] a "Warner 110 ...”

1931 Miami Air Race

The Miami News; January 8, 1931; “Official Of Oil Firm Flies Here .... accompanied by his wife and Don Ryan Mockler, landed at municipal airport in a Cessna monoplane, piloted by Eddie Schneider, famous junior American pilot. ... Schneider's monoplane is painted in the Richfield colors, blue and cream. The young pilot, who won the junior transcontinental record this summer and followed this with winning the Great Lakes trophy in the National Air Tour, is planning sensational flight around the world. flying both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, solo.”

Flying magazine; April 1, 1931; “Eddie Schneider, 18, of Jersey City, N. J., former holder of the Junior Trans-continental record, stopped at Roosevelt Field on his way back from the Miami Air Races. He is flying his Warner Cessna, painted in Richfield colors.”

1931 National Air Tour

The Zanesville Signal; Zanesville, Ohio; June 30, 1931; “Noted Flyers Ready for U.S. Tour. Two famous flyers who will compete in the National Air Tour starting from Detroit July 4, are Eddie Schneider, left, 19-year-old former holder of the junior transcontinental flight record, and Mae Haizlip, right, the only woman to enter the reliability race over the 6,500-mile course for a second time. She first entered in 1929.”

Greensburg Daily Tribune; July 2, 1931; “Famous Fliers Enter Air Tour. Detroit (United Press) Many nationally and internationally famous fliers will compete in the 1931 National Air Tour, starting July 4 and ending July 25. Eddie Schneider, 19-year-old boy pilot, former holder of the Junior Transcontinental flight record; Mrs. Mae Haizlip, and Lowell R. Bayles, who placed second in the All-America Flying Derby last summer, are among the entries. ...”

The Pittsburgh Press; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; July 5, 1931; “Such noted pilots as Eddie Stinson, Lee Gehlbach and Mrs. Haizlip will be ... for the start of the tour at Detroit yesterday. Eddie Schneider, 19-year-old boy pilot, former holder of the junior transcontinental flight record, is flying a Cessna monoplane in the tour. ...”

Coshocton Tribune; Coshocton, Ohio; July 9, 1931; “Reliability air tourists over West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. ... The point standing is as follows: ... Eddie Schneider 13.156.8 ...”

Lima News; Lima, Ohio; July 10, 1931; “Russell Leads Flyers in Air Tour. Murfreesboro, Tennessee, July 10, 1930 (International News Service) Harry Russell, in a trimotored plane led nine contestants in the national reliability air tour into Tennessee Sky Harbor today for a luncheon control stop. Flight officials had received no word from Eddie Schneider, 19-year-old pilot, who was forced down near Middlesboro, Kentucky yesterday.”

Time magazine; August 3, 1931; “Ford's Reliability. For the second consecutive year shock-haired Pilot Harry L. Russell flew a trimotored Ford into Ford airport near Detroit last week to win the Edsel Bryant Ford Trophy for reliability in the National Air Tour. His easy victory over a field of 14 gave the Ford company its second leg of the current trophy (three consecutive victories gives permanent possession). Only once in the 6,590-mi. tour was Pilot Russell pressed for leading position, and then it was by Pilot James H. Smart flying another Ford, which finished second. Smart nearly caught up with Russell when the leader became lost over the mountains of Kentucky and failed to find Middlesboro. Later Russell had to fly back from Knoxville, Tennessee, and touch at Middlesboro to escape heavy penalties. Sensation of the meet was the youngster Eddie Schneider, 19, who fell into last place by a forced landing of his Cessna and a three-day delay in Kentucky, then fought his way back to finish third, ahead of all other light planes.”

1931 (September) Look Out, Lindbergh - Here I Come

Look Out, Lindbergh - Here I Come by Eddie Schneider as told to Mary Bell Dann. I choose flying as a career and bump into some funny things. I recently flew more than twelve thousand miles in a little over a month, through rain, fog, wind and snow, over mountains, cities and deserts, in a three-year-old, second-hand airplane that had already traveled some five hundred thousand miles. During that time I never was very late for an appointment or put a single scratch on myself. And considering that I am hardly an expert pilot at nineteen years of age, I knew that these statements must prove something about modern commercial aviation. But what? Being pretty close to the picture, it in hard for me to see, but It does seem that it would show that aviation is for young people as well as the older and wiser generation. In fact, in New Jersey, a boy can get his pilot's license two years before he can get his driver's license. So this is aimed at the youngsters, hoping they won't take it too seriously, and those who have arrived at years of discretion, first as pure amusement because some darned funny and interesting things can happen in aviation and second, there is a concealed missionary purpose, to show that aviation has arrived as an industry. Not that it has much bearing on the story, but because people are always asking me, my name is really Eddie: I was christened that way. It isn't very dressy, but it serves the purpose. As for background, my grandfather was some kind of Scandinavian royalty and was thrown out of it for marrying a peasant girl. Dad had a butcher shop in Jersey City. The first time I was in the air was in Germany, from Hamburg to Hanover. My sister Alice was kind of nervous and decided she didn't want to make the flight after all and started to open the door to get out, not knowing that we had taken off and were in level flight. She changed her mind, you bet, and because there was so little motion she got to like it. Dad said, when he stepped out at the airdrome, that he wished he could always travel that way. We had had to coax him hard to get him to fly in the first place. Right then I did some planning. I wanted to learn to fly a ship more than anything I had ever wanted to do in my life, but several months went by, and in the meantime I went back to work in the bank, before I was able to do anything about taking up what I hoped would be my life work. The idea stuck and one Sunday night I went out to Roosevelt Field to find out all I could about it. We have Sunday dinner late in our house and it is a good two and a half hour trip by tube and train, although you can make it in few minutes by air. It was dark when I got there and they were just about to close up for the night when I arrived. I guess they thought I was having a brainstorm by the way I came madly dashing up and asked rapid questions. They didn't take me quite seriously as a prospective student and just merely tolerated me. I fooled them. Two days later I was back again and ready to fly. Bill Ulbrich took me up over the cemetery in Westbury and pointed down, saying. "See that place? Well, you will be there if you touch the controls," and had a piece of iron pipe in his hand to enforce what he said. I don't blame him for not wanting me to monkey with the controls before I knew what it was all about, but the remark seems funny in this day of teaching you to fly by applied psychology. Then he gave me the works, loops, barrel rolls, in fact at that time I had no idea what I was getting. At the end of twenty minutes of stunting he told me to take the controls and keep the nose of the ship going straight and on the horizon in level flight. I did my best, but it was hard because I was dizzy from all the unaccustomed motions. I liked and didn't like it, but was back the next day for more. I didn't want to drag out my period of instruction, but to go through in a hurry. Aviation was beginning to skyrocket. Everyone was interested and there was lots of activity on the field, but not much system, and there was still a good deal of war surplus junk around. One piece they hadn't gotten rid of yet was an old Tommy Horn scout plane. One day a pilot who hadn't flown in about a year took it up and after circling the field a few times made a perfect landing - about feet 50 up. After that ha came down quickly and as the ship hit the ground the old rotary Le-Rhone motor kept right on spinning across the field. The wings folded up like those of a tired pigeon and the fuselage broke in three places and bent up like an old broken-down donkey. The wheels went up over the head of the pilot, who looked alarmed, but wasn't hurt. I learned something every day. Soon after I had started there a mechanic named Porter was cranking an OX Travel Air and forgot to look at the throttle to make sure it was closed. It was unfortunately half open and the minute the engine caught hold the ship started chasing him. I grabbed a wing tip, but that made it go in circles. The mechanic was too rattled to think about heading straight out, and kept just a few steps ahead of the whirling prop. Of course, it could have been a serious affair, but I can remember how funny he looked with a greasy rag that was half out of his pocket, streaming right out straight behind him and the prop almost catching it. He was swearing so hard and fast that that cut down his speed too. We would probably still be running around in circles if dear old Bill Ulbrich hadn't jumped in to cut the switch. My solo was just another solo. Bill climbed out and neither of us noticed that a landing gear strut was broken. Nothing gave way, though. I must have made my first good landings that day. Soon after I had made my solo flight another fellow, I don't know his name, as he was never called anything but the Great Dane on the field, was about to go up for his solo flight. The inspector told him to make a spot landing, that is, to come to a dead stop at a given point. Where? Oh, right where the inspector was standing then. He was very nervous about making an accurate landing and thought of nothing else. The inspector forgot all about it and stayed right whore he was. The first thing he knew the student had circled the field and was about to sit down on top of him. The student couldn't see the inspector on account of the engine out front being in his way and the inspector was too petrified to move for a minute. Then he hopped out of the way and immediately there was a wing where he had been. He was refused his license and couldn't apply for another for ninety days, which seem quite fair. They were trying to teach us safety and I don't doubt that we were a wild lot, and needed it. One day a fellow overshot the old Roosevelt Field and, passing over the gully between the two, came in at Curtiss Field, a mile away. Another boy came in so fast downwind that he had to hook a wing around a telegraph pole and spin around to slow down. Strange enough, he didn't hurt either himself or the ship, but they grounded him for two weeks as a lesson in caution in watching the wind direction. They had initiated me when I arrived at the field, so when the next new student, a big Irishman named Meighan, came I was ready to give him his. He was about to step in the ship for his first flight when I went around front and began inspecting the prop very critically. He was, of course, interested in what seemed to be troubling me. I said I didn't think hw ought to in the crate until someone got some more prop wash. He was off in a minute to see if he could find some. Prop wash is the name for the blast of air sent back by the whirling propeller. He want in the nearest hangar and asked for it. The guy in there knew it was as joke ans told him he couldn't have any without getting a requisition for it, so off he went down to the office. They must have smiled when they wrote it out, but he never caught on. Back he went to the hangar and the name fellow gave him a bucket to get it in and made believe to look for it and then he said he guessed there wasn't any left and that Melghan had better go down to Curtiss Field for it. So he hopped in his car and tried all the shops and hangars there. In the last one a mechanic told him to stand by the tail of a ship that was on the line while he started the motor and catch all the prop wash he could in his pail. When it all was explained to him and he had to come back with a bucket of air he surely wanted my scalp. One student soloed, was passed by the Department of Commerce, and bought. an old OX Travel Air. An OX is a wartime motor and hardly very reliable. He flew the ship until one day the motor conked on him and he was lucky enough to get down on a farm okay. He couldn't get out again even when he fixed his motor on account of trees on three sides of the field and a brick wall on the fourth. We all told him the best thing to do was to take the wings off and tow her over to a bigger field and take off there. He said no, she was rigged just right and he didn't want to mess with her. So he got an estimate on how much it would cost to rebuild the wall if he took it down. It was about three hundred dollars. He decided to take the bricks down himself and spent ten days doing it. He made an aperture several feet wider than his wing span. when he finally got in his ship to take off through the opening he had made he was so nervous that he ground looped the ship and headed straight for the part where the bricks were still standing. Tho farmer made him pay for the wall, you bet, and the ship was a total write-off. However, it was not only student pilots who made odd landings. Roger Williams at that time had been flying four or five years, but hadn't got the Transatlantic bug yet. This particular Sunday when there was a large crowd at the field he thought he would make such a short, landing that he would astound everybody at his ability to set a ship down on a small space. He did just that thing, only on the hangar roof. He would have passed over it neatly if a sudden up current hadn't shot his tail up, and the sume thing happened as if you lifted up on one end of a seesaw, the nose went down. Jenny left both of her wings on the roof and Roger, awfully sore, went off muttering about his helluva fine landing. There was another peculiar crackup when Emil Burgin was through using the Exclamation Point for refueling the Tree Musketeers and the Fokker was sold to someone who couldn't fly worth a darn. He started to land into the wind all right, but thinking he was going too fast, he began banking. When the wheels hit the ground he was crosswind and by the time he had lost most of his speed he was going downwind. Then he hit a series of bumps and the last one bounced him right over on his back. Newspaper photographers flocked all around shooting pictures and mechanics threw a rope over the tail to hoist the ship back right aide up again, and all this time no one had even thought about the pilot. I looked in and he was sitting in the cabin looking sort of puzzled-like. Even Bill, my instructor, had his forced landing down in Georgia. The only clear space was directly in front of a house, so he sat down there and didn't stop rolling until he was right up to the front porch. An old colored woman ran out the back door shouting. "Lawd, deliver me." He stayed in that town three weeks, but he never did see her again. With the kind of equipment they flew you wonder how there were relatively so few washouts. Most of the accidents were just comical, nobody ever seemed to be hurt. A hard landing in those days would scatter a ship with wooden longerons all over the field, whereas the same landing in an modern ship with good shock gear and steel tubing framework will just do a good healthy bounce. In the meantime I had learned to fly - somewhat. I could got around all right without doing any great, damage to the ship or myself, but I had not enough hours to be doing passenger hauling and hadn't the money to buy additional time. So I took up with the American Air Express as a grease monkey to help in washing down ships and doing general engine work. I found out a good many things about motors I was glad to know later on. Bud Clarke must have been crazy when he organized the outfit. His men weren't filers and naturally weren't much of a success at running it. They must have sunk about fifty thousand dollars in the proposition with buying a Loening and the Stearman that Bud cracked up four times, and all the necessary equipment. They barnstormed at Rye for a while and then petered out. Buddy got three baths in one day at New London the day of the Harvard Yale regatta and nobody could hate salt water worse than he does. He was celebrating because Yale won and he went to Yale. He had been anchored in the river and in taking off forgot the anchor rope. He was just over a motor boat when his rope tightened and he dove in. The floats hit the roof of the launch and sheared it off. A fellow inside who had bent over to the engine stood up and found he had nothing but sky over him. The men on a Coast Guard cutter helped him hoist his plane onto the davit of their boat. Buddy had forgotten something he needed and leaned over the side of the cutter to reach into the cockpit to get it when a swell coming down the river rocked the boat, and Buddy went on over. He managed to dry off somewhat and promoted himself a ride into New London in a speedboat. On the way the engine went dead and he volunteered to crawl out forward to see where the trouble was. As he reached the bow a “big ocean liner" as he called it, probably an excursion boat, passed and tho bow of the speedboat buried itself in the wake and rose again. Buddy came up separately. The first thing the Swede who was running the boat asked was, "Did you fix the engine?" I had wanted a ship that I could fly around in whenever I wanted, but not having too much money, I couldn't think very seriously about it. When I did get one it was quite accidental how it came about. I was over in John Hay Whitney's hangar, talking to his mechanic, Carl Schneider, not a relative of mine, but a good friend, when Whitney's secretary, Edgar Woodhams, came in. We got to talking and he told me that he had flown during the war. He went on to say that he was doing a lot of traveling on business. The idea popped into my head that he might better be flying and I told him so: that he would spend lwss time than going by train and that new ships were much safer than those in which he had flown during the war. He said there was some sense to what I had told him and that he would think over the possibilities of using air transportation in his business. A week later he was back saying he had decided to got a ship of his own. I knew of a Spartan for sale over in Westfield, so I went over and picked it up and made him a demonstration. I don't know anything about salesmanship, but I gave him the ride of his life. He bought it and took me on as pilot. We went places and I worked in some cross-country and night-flying experience, but mostly I was giving him instruction, as he done any flying in over ten years and he had lost all sense of it. I was seventeen and he was a mere child of forty-six. I'll say I learned more about flying by teaching him than I did by doing it myself. Carl Schneider had also had some work during the war, but he was as rusty as Woodhams. I soloed both of them, although I had less than sixty hours myself. No other instructors other than those of Roosevelt School are allowed to use Roosevelt Field, so we did our flying over at the Aviation Country Club field in Hicksville, an Whitney is a member there. I'll never forget one thing I saw at Hicksville. You will probably remember reading in the papers that certain members of the New York police force were detailed to aviation work. One of the cops was over at Hicksville to practice deadstick landings away from the traffic at Roosevelt. He made a nice three-point landing with his motor off. The ship didn't roll far on the ground and he got out to crank it in order to taxi over to where he could take off again. But he forgot that he cut his motor by the switch and that the gas was still full on. When the engine caught the plane plunged at him. He ducked under the wing and tail as they went over him and then realized that the ship was liable to wind itself up in something, so off he went after it. It was quite a sight. Most of the cops were about equally successful as aviators. I've heard it explained that their feet were too big for the rudder pedals. Another day we had quite some excitement when Woodhams came out to the hangar with about two hundred thousand dollars worth of diamonds in his pocket and proceeded to lose them. He was taking them to John Hay from a jeweler so that he could select one for the ring for his fiancee. I don't know why the jeweler let him cart them away in the old tobacco sack like Bull Durham comes in, but let me tell you that there was a mad scramble until they were found. Woodhams wasn't very much perturbed, he said they weren't good enough stone anyway and in the end they didn't use any of them. The Spartan was built well enough, but she had a foreign motor, the Walters, which is built in Czechoslovakia, that did not have the power necessary for the ship. She would just sort of stagger up into the air and you were never quite sure she would make it although in the air she was sweet running. Then, too, the landing gear wasn't strong enough and would fold up. I'm not denying' that Carl and I didn't use her hard. They give it out that the Spartan won't spin. They mean she won't fall into an involuntary spin, but Carl and I wanted to see just what was what. We were up around a thousand feet. playing around and he put her in a vertical bank and then gave her bottom rudder and top aileron. We made three turns with the power on. Carl let go of the controls and she brought herself out easily, but we were right above the tree tops around the polo field. We washed out a wing panel and smashed a prop that we had borrowed from the Siemens-Haske man. and didn't know until we had ruined it that he had borrowed it from someone else, who had it loaned to him by someone who had borrowed it from Thea Rasche, who in tho meantime had gone back to Germany. It was terribly complicated and I don't know if it ever was ever straightened out. We painted the ship red and sold it. I found myself minus I job. I didn't, have time enough for my transport ticket and real airline work, so took what I could get, even if it was test-flying. The insurance people say it is dangerous. I am inclined to agree with them. Anyway the unforeseen can be relied on to happen. It came about this way: a man in the wicker furniture business came to the conclusion that a Jennie's wings were no marvel of efficiency. Ww all knew that. The only difference was that he did something about it. He persuaded the Sikorsky factory which makes a good wing, to build one for Jenny that would take the place of both her old ones. By changing her from a biplane to a monoplane he hoped to change all the performance characteristics. He was right. She climbed like no one had ever seen a Jenny climb before. She was fast. She was controllable with one finger now where you had to fight her with two hands before. I liked her fine until I tried a whipstall. There was a crack and a bang and she shuddered all over. So did I. I worked all the controls and found them to be still operative. I worked up nerve to try the same maneuver again. The name splintering, crashing noise came again. That was plenty for me and I came down without delay. The moment the wheels hit the ground something struck me in the back of the head. It was the door to the tool compartment, which no one had told me was loose. Why it didn't strike my head when it open in the air I don't know. The old crate in still over at the field though and people come over on Sunday and try to figure out what brand of airplane it is. If I am going to do any more test-flying I would just as soon do it on new planes. I always felt sorry for Charlie Levine. He had a hangar on the field, too, but no one took him seriously. Them are unpleasant things that can be said about him, as there can be about most anybody. But it took a heck of a lot of nerve for him to go across and you have got to admit that. And he did a good deal for aviation if spending money on it counts. He had heard a lot about the ability of a group of French engineers and set them set out to design the Uncle Sam. He incidentally let himself in for a gypping. It cost him a half million dollars before he was through with them. There are, as most people know. different wing curves. Some are best for speed, others for climb and others for general efficiency. So it in not unusual for a fine plane to embody several curves. But the Uncle Sam employed eighteen in each wing and quite a few in the fuselage, making it difficult and very costly of construction. Most airplane builders use standard pans in many places on their machine, but everything that went into the Uncle Sam was made for that job alone. When it was finished it was a huge, heavy plane, supposed to be suitable for carrying a great load for na long distance. But there wasn't a pilot who cared to fly it. Charlie Levine wanted Bill Stultz to fly it, but Bill didn't act interested at all as he was only offered a hundred dollars to do it. Bill could act very independent and did, and he wouldn't leave the ground in it for less than a thousand. Charlie pleaded and argued but he didn't get any place. The next day he came back and said a thousand was all right. Bill wouldn't do it until he had a check. Levine gave him a check. No, it had to be certified before he would accept it. By that time it was too Inte to take it to the bank to have it certified and then had to wait until the next day. Bill finally deposited the money in his account and then took it up. He was in the air just six minutes and you could tell by the way he didn't do much with her. He came down and Levine was wild. He didn't consider that the ship had been properly tested. But. Bill had seen all he wanted of it and was frank about saying so. Levine asked him if there were any changes he would advise making and Bill said, “Yes, put some more gas in the tanks and touch a match lto it." I guess the way of progress is full of heartbreak like that. Next month Eddie tells us of his coast-to-coast trip which broke the Junior Transcontinental Record. Don't fail to read this interesting account. Source: Flying magazine; September 1, 1931. Transcribed by Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) starting on December 24, 2012.

1931 (October). I Break a Record and have a Swell Time Besides

'I Break a Record and have a Swell Time Besides by Eddie Schneider as told to Mary Bell Dann. Random notes on a two-way trip across the continent. From the beginning I had wanted to do something with my flying. Just being able to go up in the air and come down at the same spot wasn't very exciting. Airplanes are for going places quickly, safely and comfortably. I don't know why, but my longing had always been to go to the West Coast. First, because I had never been there, and then for various reasons you fly over all sorts of country on the way, and it is the best way to see the country. Then that is the longest distance you can go without hitting foreign country. Frank Goldsborough had made the old junior transcontinental record. Frank was killed in a very unfortunate and peculiar accident. When he returned from his cross-country flight he was touring around, got into had weather and landed in a low tree. His companion got out all right and so did Frank when a very strange thing happened. His reserve tank, which he carried under the ship fell and struck him in the head. It was the sort of thing that wouldn't happen once in n million times, but the average person never stopped to think that out. The idea got around that it wasn't safe for young fellows and girls to fly. Frank had believed in aviation for boys and girls of high school and college age as the greatest of sports. I wanted to prove he was right and be able to give people something to talk about in connection with junior aviation besides Frank's tough luck. Those ideas were all in the back of my mind, but I hadn't bean able to do anything about them. Then one day I went over to the Westfield Airport where Charlie Dann was and got to talking it over with him - I wished I had money to buy a ship. He was already sold on the idea of young fellows being in the air and had more young fellows at his school than at any other school in the country. We got thinking it over and he suggested that I get some of my friends to form a corporation to buy a half interest in a Cessna he had at his field. It was a cabin ship and the average passenger prefers to ride in an open ship for a short hop and it was too advanced for student training. It was cheap, the total purchase price would be less than half of the real value of the ship and it was in good shape. I knew it was a fast ship because I had followed in the papers when it raced and brought back cups from the different air meets it went in. Then Dad come across and backed me to the half interest in the ship. I could buy the other half interest when I got back with any prize money or advertising checks I received. It was a lucky break. Things began to happen with lightning-like rapidity. I took title around the tenth of August and was off the fourteenth. The reason for this was that the National Air Races were on during the last week in August in Chicago and I wanted to be there. I had two hours time in the ship before I headed west. There were many details to attend to; the engine had to be checked, there wasn't time for an overhaul and the boys at the field worked cheerfully until all hours of the night helping me. We didn't do any special streamlining to add to the top speed of the ship although I bet we could add an easy ten miles an hour by putting pants over the wheels and a cowling over the motor. It was just an ordinary commercial ship and I was glad I could help tell more folks that Papa Cessna builds an honest ship with remarkably clean lines and speed without the doo-dads. We didn't install any special instruments either. We had the ones checked that were in there. The instrument company's man swung the compass for accuracy before we put the extra cans of gasoline aboard. First I bought. a map of the whole United States and laid out on it what seemed to be the best course. I had it beside me at Valley Stream one day just before starting and Frank Hawks looked at it. "Hey, you, where did you get my map?" He was getting ready for his coast to coast flight. Strange thing, we had each laid out a practically identical route. The next stop was to buy state maps, sort them out in the proper order and layout my course on those. Charlie Dann said that wasn't enough, he must have had a hunch about what was going to happen to my compass, so that last night, after we all left the hangar at midnight after throwing in tools, a spare wheel and a bottle of coffee no that I could got right off as soon as dawn broke the next morning, I went to bed and sat up with the maps. In the morning he handed me a log of points measured on the map with a table of how long It would Lake to get from point to point. In this way I could always know where I was without a compass, by the rivers, mountains, cities and other prominent landmarks. I wasn't waiting for perfect weather because there wouldn't be much aviation if it were all fair day and tall wind flying. All I asked was a little ceiling near Bellefonte where the mountains are apt to be a little too chummy with the clouds. The report indicated a rising ceiling over Bellefonte, which later turned out to be a lot of bologna . It wasn't quite light yet when I got out to the field that morning, but the reporters and men who operated the sound trucks were already there, as most of them had slept at the or in Rahway, the nearest town. They took pictures and asked me to speak. I couldn't think of anything to say. I was much more anxious to be up and off. People kept thrusting letters and charms on me until my pockets were bulging with junk. Imagine how silly it would seem if you were starting on an automobile trip and fond friends and relatives insisted that unless you took all of this along the trip was bound to be a failure. A fellow at Roosevelt handed me a little teddy bear, my aunt gave a crucifix, my sister put the first ring my mother ever wore into my keeping, Smitty told mo to take along a supposed to be lucky Cuban half dollar and his pocket watch and the Danns thought their tiny green stone monkey might help. The ship had been warming up and Sarge, the head mechanic, was at last satisfied with it. So I started off down the runway. I felt one wheel bind slightly, there must have been some grit in there as he had the wheels off greasing them the night before, so I changed over abruptly to the runway that meets the one I started on at an angle. There was some crosswind then that took the weight off the ship off that wheel until she got into the air. We named the ship the Kangaroo, because we hoped I could get to California in a couple of jumps. I left the at and the weather grew increasingly soapy. It was still early in the morning when I found n hole in the thick stuff and hogan to look for a resting place. With a compass that work and being unable to distinguish a railroad from a river from the air I had a perfectly swell chance of losing myself, which would add up my flying hours. I saw a nice even wheat field and landed there. The farmer didn't appear to resent my intrusion but started to talk. "“I soon you circling around and the woman and kids ran in the house scared. but I watched you." Big, brave farmer! "I allus did want to leave one of these here airplane light, I been wanting to go down to Altoona and take the family. but is a long drive, nigh onto thirty mile and we been yet. but I reckon we have to go now." They gave me lunch and were very friendly. The weather started to clear and I was eager to be off so I had the farmer sign a paper telling what time I landed and what time I took off. This would seem to be as appropriate time as another for me to wish aloud for an airport in every town. I had expected to be in Columbus in four hours and a half after leaving Westfield, New Jersey. No reports came through over the press wires about my arriving there and people got kind of worried. I had sent a telegram to Charlie Dann telling him why I won't going through, but he had been up all night working on my navigation and had gone home to bed when I left the field. They didn't want to call him because he was so tired and the contents of the message weren't known. He didn't come to until in the afternoon and then I was six and a half hours overdue at Columbus. I am sorry it gave anyone any concern, because I was enjoying myself. I got kind of still in the front cockpit. but it was a thrill to be in the act of doing what I had always wanted to do most. A combination of fog and darkness made further travel impossible for that night, as I was off the regular mail route which has the beacons, as I making as near a beeline as I could. Before I took off the next morning from Altoona an Army pilot come back for the third time after traveling in circles. The flat lands of the central states were to fly over and until I came to El Dorado, twenty miles east of Wichita, every little thing was just humming along. I was running out of gas or I could have flown over a sand storm that came along. It began with a strong wind, then there was a blast of sand, more wind and then a thunderstorm. It was the time I had seen ball lightning bouncing along telegraph wires, as though the burning spheres were basketballs. There was I flying there, but you would never know it was one. I was the only one on the field, it came too quickly for me to take the plane down and the only way to keep the plane from blowing away was to sit on the tail, which didn't improve my personal appearance any, as I came into the Wichita airport covered with red mud. At first they just stared at me then Pop Cessna gave me a bawling out for coming in after dark and guessing where the lay. I had a general idea of the direction and distance, having out once before to take delivery on a Stearman. They were at work early the next morning, removing the wing so they could install a big tank for extra gas. This stunt of carrying five gallon cans was not hot as the weight shifted and the heat of the cabin sent the corks popping with expanding vapors. Then if I hit a bump a jet of gas went shooting up. I didn't like the fumes or fighting with the stoppers and was glad to see the tank go in, although it is hard to forgive them for putting the tank in on top of my spare wheel, which I could't get at when I needed it without taking the whole wing off. The tank was much too big to go through any of tho doors or windows so they lowered it through the roof. While they were fixing it, Clyde Cessna let me try his new little powered glider. Clyde had just soloed for the first time with ordinary controls. In the early days each man taught himself to fly in a machine of his own design. In his machine the controls were reversed and until then he had always had the controls reversed on his own personnel ship. The powered glider was fun to fly. so I looped it and rolled it. When I got down Clyde's hair was standing right up straight. They forgot to tell me that no Approved Type Certificate had been issued for it yet and no one knew what it would or would not do, being still in the experimental stages. I left slightly after noon and altered my course to the southward. As soon as I entered New Mexico, I had to dodge one thunderstorm after the other which wasted the gas and added to my flying time. I landed on a high mesa with no vegetation on it except low bushes and rolling tumbleweed. From out of everywhere and nowhere came hordes of Indians. They must have lived nearby on a reservation and I never saw one of them who had any thought of working. All they have to do is around in old broken down Ford cars, about ten to a car, draped on the fenders, the hood, and the folded top. When they wanted to start the cars, it never occurred to them to start them with the starter or to use the crank that swung out front. Everyone would pile onto the car that they wanted to start and shove. Their clothes were cut like ours but made of the dizziest colors you can imagine, mostly reds and yellows. Only one of them spoke any English and he not much. He managed to convey to me that it was the first airplane they had ever seen. When they went by in the air they had always thought they wore big birds. Soon they discovered the ailerons, the movable control surfaces on the wing tips, and were convinced that the plane flapped them to fly. Then one of the men bumped into the rudder and shouted to the rest of them to come over to wiggle it. My English speaking friend remarked deep in thought, “Bird no have him." The flippers were the next discovery of moment. If anyone thinks of Indians as big quiet, impassive individual: he should have hward the babble that crowd made when they were exploring the flippers. Again I heard, "Bird no him." "What make him go?" I pointed to the propeller. "Me no believe, keep um white man cool?" The tank in the back was the next and the word got around that it contained firewater. What a noise! I told the one that it was gasoline and that it made the big bird go tho same as it did their Fords. Another "Me no believe." He was skeptical about everything. I opened a valve and wet my finger with it. "Me believe" which was immediately translated into Indian, “ZXCVBNMASDFGHJKL." They went off at sundown leaving me alone on the mesa. It was a strange feeling. I didn't know any place could be so lonely or any sunset so gorgeous. There was about every color in the world in it. I don't wonder people get nutty about the west. Sleeping in the front cockpit of the plane was another matter though. I awoke just before daybreak from my uncomfortable position and realized I could have slept outside, but I had been afraid to try it for fear a sudden wind might come up and blow my ship away off the tableland and I wasn't taking any chances. A few of the Indians arrived before I got off in the morning and they didn't seem to realize the danger of the prop mowing them down. In fact they were a blame nuisance. As soon as I got in the air I saw the rest of their village headed for the mesa. The ship didn't get very easily off on account of the rarity of the atmosphere and I must have run two miles along the longest dimension of the mesa, before my wheels left the ground. The place was called Anton Chico, although I don't know why a person would bother to name it, and I shan't forget it soon. Most of the time I was busy checking up my navigation, but once in a while when it got monotonous I would go down to the ground and brush the bushes for a while. I could not do that over the desert proper, it was too hot down there. I picked up a thermometer at Wichita, not knowing how good it was, but it registered a hundred and twenty in the cabin. The desert was sprinkled with meteor craters and one of the big ones must have been all of four miles wide. It was just like a mountain, only growing in the wrong direction. There must have been some fireworks when the meteor that threw it up landed and buried itself in the sand. I did some cussing at Holbrook, where I landed to make sure of the weather ahead and ran a sharp sand burr in the tire. I didn't know I had a flat, because the sand of the airport made the going naturally heavy. When I got out at the hangar the tube was all chewed from running on it flat with the load. They had no other and my spare was buried under a hundred gallon tank filled with gas and a wing bolted down on that. I had the luck to locate a motorcycle tube, three sizes too small, but more than welcome. It is still on the ship. The San Bernardino Pass back of Los Angeles was full of fog, so I landed at the town of Ontario to find out if the weather was equally bad ahead, and if not, how to get to the Municipal Airport at Los Angeles. They have been changing the names of the flying fields out there and the man I asked about the Municipal Airport misunderstood my question and directed me to the Municipal Airport in Long Beach. While I was in Ontario I phoned to the Richfield Oil Company in Los Angeles and was told that their man, Mr. Pedri, would be there to meet me when I landed. The weather seemed to be passable ahead, so I took off for what I thought was Los Angeles. I found the field all right, but there was hardly anyone there, and that seemed strange, as just a few minutes before Mr. Pedri had told me there was quite a crowd waiting. It had gotten dark and I was blamed tired, having come all the way from Anton Chico, New Mexico, that day. I had asked the minute I came in and was told that it was the Municipal Airport. After being there some minutes I came to enough to ask, “Is this the Municipal Airport in Los Angeles]]?" When I found out it was Long Beach and I had no idea of my way around over a strange city, I had another pilot lead the way to the other field. There was a crowd there and the photographers kept me posing, which was the last thing in the world I had any desire to do. The officials added up the time and I was glad to have established a new record. knowing that the chances were it would not be my record long, but that would be just what I wanted. to stir up interest in junior flying. The Richfield Oil Company presented me with a case that is a beauty, with places for everything and lined with oilskin, and the whole thing is as light as a feather. From then on I dragged it around with me everywhere I went after that. I knew that Charlie Dann would want to know how I made out, so I phoned him. It was midnight when I was able to break away to do it so it must have been three o'clock in the morning in Westfield. I think I got almost as much of kick out of phoning three thousand miles as I did out of flying that distance. I spent most of my time in Los Angeles at the airport seeing that work was done on my ship and motor. I did take a few minutes to deliver two letter's, one from Jimmy Walker and one from Mayor Hague, to Mayor Porter of Los Angeles. Mr. Padri took me to the "Breakfast Club" in Los Angeles. l never heard of any similar institution. It is like night club, only for a little later on. You ate breakfast there in a beautiful grove. where everybody made friends with everybody else and sang. The management put on a show and gave a setting up drill. I finally got back to the port the work on the ship was done and she appeared to be in A1 shape. I was up early the following morning and hopped off for Albuquerque. l hated to leave California. it had looked so good after the miles of desert I had over, but, of course. l was interested in seeing what the ship would do with favoring winds. You can usually count on a tail wind going cast. But no such luck for this boy. I buckled headwinds in both directions. However, I can manage to be thankful they weren't crosswinds. which not only cut down your forward speed but throw you off your course. I enjoyed the night back. Knowing the route, I didn't have to strain so to distinguish landmarks as I had done going out. It would have been easier to follow the oil pipeline from Wichita to Amarillo, Texas, and from there another pipe line to Los Angeles, but that way is considerably longer and consequently slower. Going back, though I could remember having passed over many of the features of the landscape, and another item was that I didn't have the glare of the sun through all the glass and celluloid panels in the front of the ship all through the long afternoon. In Albuquerque some kind of historical pageant was going on and they insisted on my staying to watch it. About a thousand Indians were doing war whoops. We couldn't make out whether the songs were different songs with the same words or the same song with different words. When you saw the way they acted, pushing one foot along in the dirt, digging in first with their toe and then with the heel, at the same time hopping on the other foot, you didn't wonder much that the white men were able to do some sharp trading and get Manhattan Island from them for the price of a hundred gallons of gas. After the first hour or so their performance was terribly boring, they reminded you of a lot of small children showing off in front of grown people, so I was plenty glad when a sandstorm came up and we could clear out. The field at which I put up was an hour's drive from town. Western Air Express used it, as it is n high mesa and the planes can leave and be on their courses. The other field that T. A. T. uses is nearer the town, but you have to circle it several times to get, enough altitude to clear the mountains. They always think up some good reason to put aviation fields as for away from the town as possible. Left for Wichita in the morning and ran into the entrants in the Pacific Coast Women's Derby. I had met them on the const, so it was like a reunion with old friends. Three of the girls came in several hours late on account of one of the girls getting off her course and the other two following her. Off again early for Columbus and through dirty weather all the way, but it was of no consequence. as over that farming land any can be a landing field. The forecast at Columbus for points east was thick stuff, so I waited. not caring about going over the mountains in Pennsylvania until it had lifted. It hadn't cleared up a whole lot even by the next morning, but l pushed on through. There wasn't a smooth spot to sit down for miles and I was happy that the old coffee grinder up front kept singing along. Landed at Roosevelt, having been in the air twenty-seven hours and some odd minutes. Then for the first real sleep in weeks. Gee, it was good. Source: Flying magazine; October 1, 1931. Transcribed by Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) starting on December 24, 2012.

1934 marriage

Seattle Daily Times; Seattle, Washington; Tuesday, June 26, 1934; “Eddie A. Schneider Weds Woman Flyer. New York, Tuesday, June 26, 1934 (Associated Press) Eddie A. Schneider , 22 years old, an aviator, and Gretchen A. Hahned [sic], 33, New Jersey governor of teh Women's International Aeronautics Association, were married in the Municipal Chapel June 2, a search of the records today disclosed.Four years ago Schneider, then 18, clipped an hour and a half from the late Frank Goldsborough's junior record of twenty-eight hours and eighteen minutes for a West-East transcontinental flight.”

1935 Jersey City Airport

Richfield Reaper, Richfield, Utah; Thursday, March 21, 1935; “He Learns to Fly in 55 Minutes. After 55 minutes of instruction, Herbert Sargent, twenty-two, of Jersey City, made his first solo flight in a plane at the Jersey City airport and after completing the prescribed maneuvers set his plane down for a three point landing. Eddie A. Schneider, twenty-three, Sargent's youthful instructor, holder of the junior transcontinental flying record, said he allowed Sargent to go up alone because he handled a plane perfectly. Taking the air on such short instruction is believed to have brought to Sargent a new record.”

1936 to 1937 Spanish Civil War

The Daily Courier; Connellsville, Pennsylvania; Tuesday, November 24, 1936; “Bert Acosta Joins Loyalist Air Force. Valencia, Spain, November 23, 1936. Acosta, American trans-Atlantic aviator, Eddie Schneider, former manager of the Jersey City, New Jersey, airport, and Major Fred A. Lord of New York, British world war ace, left Saturday for Muraa to join the loyalist air force.”

The Ironwood Daily Globe; Ironwood, Michigan; Friday, November 27, 1936; “Yank Against Yank. One of the amazing developments in the Spanish civil war which might conceivably involve the United States Is penned by an Eastern writer. He reveals that high over Madrid's maze of streets and wide boulevards American aviators are stalking each other in the high above the bull rings of Old Spain are engaging each other in mortal combat, and the price on each man's head is a thousand dollars. While it seems incongruous some of those fighting on opposite sides in the Spanish war were the best of friends before they decided to become brave bold knights of the sky. Several of them trained together at ... Field in the east under the same instructor yet now, unknown to themselves, they are mortal enemies, seeking each others life. The American aviators were recruited in New York by agents of the two warring factions in Spain. They have no interest in the outcome, nor do they actually know what the fighting is about. All they know is that they have a chance to make 'big money' fighting for the honor of one side or the other. That big money is a salary of $500 a month and $1,000 for every plane each shoots down. One of these days Americans may be shocked to learn that Bert Acosta, associate of Rear Admiral Byrd in the flight to France in 1927, has been killed in action. Or it may be 26-year old Eddie Schneider of Jersey, holder of many flying records, or Gordon Berry, or it may be Major Fred Lord who served with the British flying service during the world war, shooting down 22 German planes. Those well known men are now piloting war planes high over Madrid because they were lured to Spain by the chance for big money.”

Nevada State Journal; Reno, Nevada; January 6, 1937; “American Tells Of Fighting in Spanish War. By Major Frederick Lord, Noted American Aviator (World Copyright, 1937 by United Press) Paris, January 5, 1937 (United Press) I have looked down 12 Spanish rifle barrels ...”

The Ironwood Daily Globe; Ironwood, Michigan; January 6, 1937; “4 Disillusioned Yank Airmen Desert Spain. Paris (Associated Press) Four disillusioned American aviators announced today they were through with Spain and furthermore, they were through with civil wars. The four - Bert Acosta, Frederick Lord, Gordon Berry and Eddie Schneider - had led the Spanish socialist government's 'Yankee squadron' on the Basque front in the far north. But, they said, they were not paid, and money was their only reason for joining up. The flyers protested they were given nothing but unarmed sports planes with which to fight, while Russian pilots were assigned 'regular American army planes.' The American warplanes were said to be machines built in Russia through contracts giving the Soviet government permission to copy American models. The flyers said both the socialist and fascist air forces in Spain were staffed almost entirely by foreigners.”

Syracuse Herald; Syracuse, New York; January 6, 1937; “Lord, Gordon Berry and Eddie [Schneider] Led The Spanish Socialist government's "Yankee Squadron" on The Basque front in the far north. ... ”

Reno Evening Gazette; Reno, Nevada; January 8, 1937; “Hired Soldiers. The American flying circus on the Spanish front is through. Led by Bert Acosta and Eddie Schneider, the American aviators I who have been serving the Spanish government in the Pyrenees want their pay. They have $1,100 coming. Schneider complains that "we were given nothing but unarmed sports planes with which to fight. while Russian pilots were as-signed 'regular American army planes'." He reports that the air forces of both sides were largely staked with foreigners and that the government was sadly outnumbered in the air. Intelligent fellow countrymen of Acosta and Schneider will waste scant sympathy on them. They are the sort of persons who get mixed up in a foreign war and then cry loudly to the state department to help them' out if they get in trouble. Try as it may to maintain neutrality, the government cannot prevent adventurers of the Acosta type from sticking their noses into other people's affairs. Officially, it is not responsible for them but the hue and cry that would arise were Acosta. for example, condemned to be shot over in Spain can easily be imagined. These American flyers have not even the redeeming quality of fighting for patriotic reasons. It was "purely business" with them, explains Schneider. And when the pay envelope was missing on the Spanish equivalent of Saturday night, the help quit. It is fortunate for these gallant Americans that they can quit at their own pleasure without being declared deserters and lined up against a stone wall. But whatever their status and whatever their fate, the government of the United States should waste no time on them.”

Omaha World Herald; Omaha, Nebraska; Saturday, January 16, 1937. Flier Returns from Spain. Asserts He Enlisted with N. Y. Lawyer. New York, January 15, 1937 (Associated Press) Back from a month of dropping bombs on behalf of the Spanish loyalist government, Eddie Schneider, Jersey City, N. J., aviator, said Friday he was signed up by a New York lawyer to serve in the Spanish war at $1,500 a month. Assistant United States Attorney John F. Dailey, Jr., announced he would seek indictments from the federal grand jury next week against several New Yorkers in connection with the enlistment of American aviators for Spanish service. Schneider said the lawyer negotiated with him for his services and handed him his steamship ticket for transportation to Spain. The flier said he quit to comply with President Roosevelt's neutrality policy and that the Spanish embassy in Paris advanced him his fare home pending payment of salary. Schneider said he participated in daily bombing raids in Spain for three weeks. Dailey said it was unlikely the grand jury would hear testimony from Bert Acosta and Major Gordon Berry, freelance fliers, who returned yesterday from Spain, but that agencies hiring Americans for Spanish service would be prosecuted "to the limit."

1940 Death

Jersey Journal; Jersey City, New Jersey; December 24, 1940; “Local Pilot Killed. Eddie Schneider and passenger die in crash. Eddie A. Schneider, 29, veteran pilot and former holder of the junior transcontinental speed record for airplanes, was instantly killed yesterday afternoon when a small monoplane in which he was giving a refresher course to another pilot was struck by U.S. Naval Reserve plane at Floyd Bennett Airport, Brooklyn. Schneider's plane, one wing sheared off, plummeted in a tight spin into an inlet of Jamaica Bay, causing instant death to Schneider and his student, George W. Herzog, 37. Schneider, a native of New York City was a resident of Jersey City until a few years ago. He became interested in aviation while still a student at Dickinson High School, Jersey City, causing him to leave school when 15 to go to work as a plane mechanic at old Roosevelt Field in Hempstead, Long Island. Schneider during his career in aviation broke the East-West, West-East and round trip junior transcontinental records in 1930 in his famous red Cessna monoplane, when only 18. He crossed the continent from Westfield Airport, New Jersey, to Los Angeles in 29 hours and 41 minutes, breaking the record of the late Frank Goldsborough. Eddie was at one time the youngest licensed commercial pilot and competed in air races and meets with men far more experienced and older than he was, after carrying off first honors. In the Ford National Reliability Tours of 1930 and 1931. Schneider with his red Cessna, carried off the Great Lakes Trophy one year, and then took first place the next year. In one of the air tours a defect in a propeller caused the engine of his plane to break loose while flying over a mountainous section of Kentucky, and Schneider made a forced landing in a corn patch on a side of the mountain. A new engine was rushed to him and after an extremely difficult takeoff, which experienced airmen, said was not possible, he went on to win first place in the tour. Schneider in 1934 became the manager of the old Jersey City Airport at Droyers Point, operating the filed for a period of a little more than a year. While at the airport he taught many Hudson County students how to fly. Schneider had a narrow escape in 1935 when a Travelair biplane in which he and a student were taking off from the airport landed in Newark Bay after the motor suddenly went dead at 100 feet of attitude. The plane was only slightly damaged in the forced water landing. Schneider and the student Al Clemmings [sic], wading to shore. In 1936 Eddie with Bert Acosta and three other pilots, enlisted in the Yankee Escadrille of the Loyalist Air Corps in Spain. For several months Schneider was flying antiquated planes, which had been rigged up with racks, dropping bombs on military objectives of the Franco forces. Schneider finally became thoroughly disgusted with the Communist regime, which he said was directing the Loyalist forces, and after many difficulties, returned to this country. Since returning from Spain, Schneider, a licensed airplane mechanic since he was 15, worked for American Airlines, first at Newark Liberty International Airport and then at La Guardia Airport, New York City, first as a mechanic, then as instrument inspector. About six months ago he resigned his post with American Airlines to take a position as student instructor with the Archie Baxter Flying Service teaching Civil Aeronautics Authority students to fly. Yesterday afternoon Schneider took Herzog, a resident of New Hyde Park, Long Island, up for a refresher course. Herzog, holder of a commercial license, had allowed the license to lapse, and was required to take dual flying time before his license would be renewed. Schneider was flying at about 600 feet altitude, coming in for a landing, when a United States Naval Reserve biplane piloted by Ensign Kenneth A. Kuehler, 25, of Rochester, Ohio, was observer, struck the tail assembly of Schneider's tandem Piper Cub. The tails surfaces and left wing of Schneider's plane were badly damaged and as the two planes separated after the mid-air collision, the small monoplane went in a tight spin, striking Deep Creek several hundred feet from Flatbush Avenue and sinking. The Naval Reserve plane was able to land at the airport. Airport emergency crews raced to the spot where Schneider's plane had submerged and the bodies of Schneider and Herzog were taken from the plane within a very few minutes after the crash. Attempts were made to to revive the two, but a Kings County Hospital ambulance intern pronounced both dead on arrival at the scene. It is believed that both were killed by the impact of the plane with the water. The bodies were taken to Kings County Hospital and Schneider will be released today and brought to Jersey City for funeral services. Herzog is survived by a widow and two small children. Schneider lived in Jersey City at 114 Carlton Avenue in the Hudson Citysection when he established the transcontinental records.”

1941 Civil Aeronautics Board report

New York Times; January 1, 1941; “Private Fliers Want New Queens Airport. Negotiations Under Way to Build Municipal Field. Negotiations between Queens officials and private aviation units looking toward the establishment in Queens of a municipal airport for private fliers were announced yesterday in a letter from Borough President George U. Harvey of Queens to Mayor La Guardia. ...It was announced yesterday at Floyd Bennett Field that the Civil Aeronautics Board would hold a public hearing on January 9 at the field's Administration Building into the crash on December 23 near the Brooklyn Airport of a Naval Reserve training plane and a plane of the Archie Baxter Flying Service. Eddie Schneider and George Wilson Herzog were killed.”

Civil Aeronautics Board file number 4326-40, docket SA-31: “... A collision accident which occurred in the vicinity of Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York, on December 23, 1940, about 1:25 p.m., resulted in fatal injuries to pilot Eddie Schneider and student pilot George Herzog. ...”

1941 Congressional report

“It appears that on December 23, 1940, a private plane piloted by Eddie Schneider was struck by a Navy plane, piloted by Ensign Kenneth A. Kuehner, United States Naval Reserve, in the vicinity of Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, N. Y., causing the death of Eddie Schneider and completely demolishing his plane. The evidence indicates that the first contact of the Navy plane with the private plane was when its propeller cut through the tail of the private plane and cut the tail completely off. This was confirmed by the fact that the tail surfaces of the private plane were found later to have been completely severed and by markings found on the propeller of the Navy plane. After the propeller of the Navy plane severed the tail surfaces, the private plane pulled ahead for an instant. The Navy plane swung slightly then overtook the private plane, again cutting one of its wings causing it to immediately spin to the waters below. An inspection of the Navy plane revealed that the leading edges of both blades of the propeller had been gouged and nicked, apparently at the time the ... Your committee find that Eddie Schneider was a brilliant flyer and had a bright future in his selected vocation. He was a young man, only 29 years of age, who had been flying since the age of 16 years. He made a transcontinental record at the ...”

1950 circa Texas biography

Eddie Schneider was born October 20, 1911 on Second Avenue, and 17th Street in New York City. Later his family moved to Red Bank, New Jersey where he attended grade school. From there his family moved to Jersey City, New Jersey and he graduated from Dickinson High School. In 1928 his mother passed away and his father took him, and his sister, for a visit to Germany and Norway to visit relatives. It was in Germany that he had his first airplane flight and it was then the "bug" bit him. Eddie received his flying instructions at Roosevelt Field in 1928. In October 1929 he received his commercial pilot's license and so became the youngest commercial pilot in the United States at age eighteen. He also received in that year, his aircraft and engine mechanic's license and so again he became the youngest licensed aircraft mechanic. In August 1930 he succeeded in breaking Frank Goldsborough's Junior Transcontinental record from New York to Los Angeles in 29 hours and 55 minutes, lowering the previous record by 4 hours and 22 minutes. He made the return trip in 27 hours and 19 minutes, lowering the previous record by 1 hour and 36 minutes. His total time for the round trip was 57 hours and 14 minutes, thus breaking the preceding record for the round trip, which was 62 hours and 58 minutes. His A.I.I. [sic] license was signed personally by Wilbur Wright [sic]. Following his transcontinental flight, Eddie flew to Chicago where he was one of the outstanding personalities at the National Air Races. While there, he was highly complimented for his ability to avoid an air crash over the crowded grandstand, a crash which had it occurred, would have cost a number of lives. Schneider had just taken off in his Cessna (with a Warner Scarab engine) monoplane from the Chicago field bound for the balloon races at Cleveland, when he saw the crowd scatter below. Noticing the panic, he looked up and saw the 40 foot left wing of a twenty passenger Buranelli transport plane directly over his. The youthful aviator saw passengers in the Buranelli scramble to the other side of the cabin to tilt the the sloping wing. The danger of the crash was great, and in an instant, Schneider sent his plane diving just as the Buranelli's wing scraped his. The crash was averted by the dip. The officials said his quick action in dipping his plane close to the ground and then pulling clear of the grandstand had probably averted the most serious accident in the races. He then entered in the Ford National Reliability Tour, the youngest pilot to have ever been so honored by an aircraft company. These tours were in reality efficiency races for commercial airplanes flying over a course of five thousand miles, which undoubtedly made these races the longest commercial aircraft races in the world. Schneider completed the tour with further honors, winning first place for single engine aircraft and the Great Lakes Trophy. Incidentally, he was the first pilot to fly a Cessna throughout the itinerary. Others had been entered in previous tours, but none had finished. Returning to New York, Schneider put in considerable time appearing in smaller air shows, where he attracted hordes of boys and girls to whom he spoke on any and all occasions, impressing upon them always the fact that any one of them could do what he was doing; that aviation belonged to them; that they should grasp the opportunity presented to them. In 1931, the Ford National Reliability Air Tour found Eddie once again a Cessna entry. During the race, the propeller broke and, causing him to lose his engine and so forced him out of the race for three days. This happened over the mountains of Kentucky. After pleading and cajoling with the Warner Company in Detroit, he made the necessary repairs with a new propeller and had been given permission to reenter the race. Naturally when he reentered the race, he found himself in last place and way behind the leaders, but he gained on his fellow pilots until on the last day, he found himself in first place again for a single engine aircraft and was the winner the second time of the Great Lakes Trophy. In 1932 he became chief pilot for the Hoover Business League. After that he became a student instructor until 1935 when he leased the Jersey City Airport in New Jersey and managed it and conducted his own flying school, aerial photography and charter work. At that time he one of the largest flying schools in the East with over one hundred and twenty-five students. And so he carried on. No flying club was too small or insignificant to win his willing cooperation in the furtherance of their plans. It was at the meeting of the Jersey Journal Model Plane Club that he met his wife, Gretchen Hahnen, who then lived in Jersey City, but was from Des Moine, Iowa. They were married in New York City on June 02, 1934. In December 1935, after a unsuccessful battle to save Jersey City Airport from becoming a stadium, he did exhibition flights and was an instructor at several New Jersey airports. By 1936, flying jobs were hard to come by. Schneider was "invited" to go to Spain and fly for the Spanish Loyalists. He accompanied Bert Acosta, Gordon Berry and Freddie Lord. They left New York on November 11, 1936 and arrived in Spain a week or so later. There he flew antiquated planes, but got disgusted and gave up, and came home, in January 1937. Between then and June of 1940 he became a mechanic for American Airlines at LaGuardia Field, but his heart was not into it, he wanted to fly. He applied to the US Government for a job as a civilian instructor for the Army and was assigned to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. On December 23, 1940, while instructing a student and coming in for a landing, he was hit in the rear by a Navy Stearman which brought Eddie, and his student, to their untimely death. When the Navy plane landed, it still had Schneider's plane's left wing in their undercarriage. And so, aviation, as an industry, owes a debt of gratitude to it's younger contingent, such as Frank Goldsborough, Bob Buck and Dick James and others who followed, and to these youthful trail blazers who were constantly winning new recruits to the ranks of those who look upon aviation as a part of themselves and to whom the industry must continue to look for its new leaders.

1953 letter from Gretchen Hahnen to Bert Acosta

Gretchen Hahnen (1902-1986) to Bertrand Blanchard Acosta (1895-1954); June 30, 1953. “My dear Bert: I was so glad to see this article in the paper, though I knew you were in Denver. A man, whose name I cannot remember, came into the office last spring, he's a flyer, and told me where you were, and that you were getting along fine. I feel terrible not to have written long before this and I am afraid you will think I am not a very good friend, but I have thought of you often and said many prayers for you and now they are being answered. I thought you might like to have this clipping. Do you remember that I had the original picture of you officially receiving the Pulitzer Speed Trophy and wanted it? The reason I didn't give it to you was because I was afraid you would lose it. Several months ago, I sent that picture along with my complete aviation library of 127 books, to the National Air Museum at the Smithsonian Institution and that is where it is now. They sent me a copy of the picture and I am mailing it to you under separate cover. The books are cataloged and now known as the "Eddie Schneider Memorial Library" and I am happy about that. When I came back to Forth Worth from New York in 1948, I gave all of Eddie's scrap books, international license signed by Orville Wright and other licenses to the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences in New York. I knew that if anything happened to me, there probably wouldn't be [anyone] who would care about them and that is why I sent all the stuff away. I am delighted to hear that you are going to start writing your memoirs. I have often thought of the opportunity I had when we were living with you and Gloria to have jotted down many of the things you told us to be used for just such a purpose, but now you have lots of time to look over the past and I hope you will. I seldom hear from anyone back East, let alone see them. I hear from Casey Jones once in a while, also Viola Gentry, who is working in New York. Saw Clarence Chamberlin on TV not long ago and he said he was completely out of aviation, though the last time I heard from him, he had been in Bellanca a couple of years ago. After my divorce from Herb Gray, I stopped over in Kansas City on my way to New York, to see Carl Schneider, remember him? His address is P.O Box 23, Muncie, Kansas, in case you ever want to contact him. There was an article in the newspaper last week about Al Baumler, who the last time I saw him he was a Major in the Air Force and is now an Airman 1st Class and is in ... the Americans Millie Lord and I met in France and later in Alicante, and it was through him, that she and I eventually got to Valencia where you and Dingle and Eddie were. Its funny, but I can remember every detail of that trip to Spain. I shall never forget the day you all sailed and when Eddie asked me to have a last drink with him, I started to bawl, you came over, knocked my chin up with your fist, "If your going to drink, smile when you do it." The impact knocked all my tears right and left, and it really helped me to tell him goodbye. I have loads of clippings left, and Eddie's diary on that Spanish deal, so if you need any refreshers, let me know. The enclosed picture is of my mom, who visited us in February for a month and my present husband, and I might add, my last, come what may. She is still full of life and vinegar and can drink me under the table despite the fact I am 20 years younger than she. Three years ago she ran for Republican committeewoman in her district, and won! She was 71 last January. We had a wonderful time when she was here, and she and Grant immediately became buddies. Though I have had two marriages end in tragedy, I am hoping this will last a long time. My husband is a great guy, has over 16 years in the Air Force, over nine of them as a Master Sergeant. He is a Yankee, thank God, no more Texans for me. Gray was a Texan and he told me once, that Texans considered their battle and women in the same category, and that strictly wasn't for me. However, he didn't go haywire mentally, until all of my $10,500 was gone, and now I am as poor as a church mouse again, but at least I am very happy. ... and electronics specialist. You'd like him, Bert, and vice versa. They are shipping people out of here very fast, but we seem to stay on and watch everyone else leave, however, our turn will come along one of these days. My fervent hope, is that it wouldn't be Limestone, Maine; Rapid City, South Dakota; or Roswell, New Mexico. Of course our preference would be March Field near Los Angeles or that other one near San Francisco, but of course we will have no choice. I wouldn't mind being sent to Europe, France, Germany, Norway, England or even Casablanca, why be in the Air Force and stay in one place? Fort Worth is a nice place, but I've got itchy feet. This is the third summer in a row now that we have suffered with intense heat, up around 104 degrees every day, and I don't like it. Both of us would like Denver, it is a really swell place and who knows, you might see us there sometime. Bert, I wont keep on yakking, you must be half dead now after reading all this stuff, but I want you to know I am pulling for you and am so happy you are on the road to recovery. If you are able, I would love to hear from you. Take care of yourself now and with lots of love, I'll close. Mrs. Grant A. Black, (Gretchen Schneider), 6109 Halloway Street, Fort Worth, Texas.”

Books and assorted periodicals sorted chronologicaly by date of publication

“He became front-page news as an anti–Francisco Franco mercenary in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War when he, Frederic Ives Lord and Eddie August Schneider signed on to organize the Yankee Squadron. But he lived hard and died ...” Source: Amy Waters Yarsinske; Flyboys Over Hampton Roads: Glenn Curtiss's Southern Experiment (2010)

“In 1933 Eddie Schneider became the principle operator of the Jersey City Airport at Droyer's Point. The airport, a popular general aviation field, was ordered closed by the city council under the iron fist of Mayor Frank Hague, on December 31, 1935. Scurrying to find a new base of operations, Schneider planned to establish a flying school at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, but first joined Bert Acosta and other American pilots to fly for the Loyalist cause in the Spanish Civil War. When money promised to the mercenary airmen was not forthcoming, they returned to the United States and picked up their flying careers. Schneider's Brooklyn flying school afforded him a living in the late Depression years. Then tragedy struck in December 1940. While giving a flying lesson to George Herzog of Brooklyn, Schneider's plane collided with one flown by a naval Reserve pilot Ensign Ken Kuehner, and crashed killing him and his student. The Navy plane landed safely. Eddie Schneider was only 28 years old.” Source: H. V. Pat Reilly; Balloon to the Moon (1992); ISBN 0963229508

“Gordon Berry, a 39 year old flying and drinking companion of Acosta, who had also served in the RAF towards the end of World War I, and Eddie Schneider Jr, ...” Source: Brian Bridgeman; The Flyers: The Untold Story of British and Commonwealth Airmen in the ... (1989); ISBN 1854210548

“Despite the increasing number of special machines being entered, Cessna monoplanes took five first places, four second places, and two third places ... In the 1931 National Air Tour, Eddie Schneider entered and flew an AW, coming in third.” Source: American Aviation Historical Society Journal (1984)

“Eddie A. Schneider 'grew up' at Roosevelt Field, where he was a flunky, mechanic and student flyer. He flew in the last two air tours, and in August of 1930, flew his Cessna to a round-trip transcontinental record for pilots under twenty-one. He made the trip in 57 hours, 14 minutes, carried greetings both ways between Los Angeles Mayor Porter, and Jersey City’s Frank Hague. Eddie Schneider was publicized as a Jersey City boy with a bare 300 hours flight time. In the late nineteen-thirties, Schneider went to Spain to fly for the Loyalists in the Revolution. But whatever promises of salary and glory were made him; he was back in New York within a short time. And as though cursed by the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War, like so many other young men, Eddie Schneider was killed in a student training accident at Floyd Bennett Field just two days before Christmas, 1940. He was twenty-nine.” Source: The Ford Air Tours, 1925-1931 (1973)

“Third place was won by the Cessna plane piloted by Eddie Schneider, equipped with a Warner motor of 110 hp, and having a gross weight of 2260 lbs., ...” Source: The New International Year Book (1966)

“The Eddie A. Schneider Memorial Library consisting of 67 books, 35 pamphlets, and a painting. " Source: Report of the Secretary and the Financial Report of the Executive Committee; Smithsonian Institution (1953)

“A bill for the relief of Mrs. Eddie A. Schneider.” (Report. No. 1403). Referred to the Committee of the Whole House. Source: Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... (1941)

“Eddie A. Schneider, 29. veteran pilot and former holder of the Junior transcontinental speed record for airplanes, died on Dec. 23 at Floyd Bennett Airport, ...” Source: American Aviation (1940)

“I knew Bert Acosta, Freddy Lord, Eddie Semons, Eddie Schneider, Gordon Barry and several other of the American pilots at Valencia. They were a jolly, ...” Source: H. Edward Knoblaugh; Correspondent in Spain (1937)

“A recent guest speaker at a club meeting was Eddie Schneider, who recounted some of his exciting experiences while a flyer in the Spanish ...” Source: American Modeler: The Best in Model Planes, Radio Control, Model Boats (circa 1937)

“Third place was captured by Eddie Schneider flying a Warner Scarab-powered Cessna monoplane, while Lowell R. Bayles took fourth place flying a Warner ...” Source: Western Aerospace (1962)

“It included some New York amateurs, but also Major Frederic Lord, Bert Acosta, and Eddie Schneider, flyers of note. They call themselves a Yankee Escadrille ...” Source: Albert Shaw; Review of Reviews (1937)

“His instructor, Eddie A. Schneider, was a young man of only 23, former holder of the junior transcontinental flying record. It is true that Mr. Sargent had ...” Source: Scientific American (1935)

“Eddie A. Schneider has been selected as co-director of the Aviation Division and will carry a combined message of Aviation and Republicanism to young men.” Source: US Air Services (1932)

“Eddie Schneider, 19, of Jersey City, N. J., former holder of the junior transcontinental record, and who won third place in this year's Ford tour, is going to do some streamlining on his Warner-Cessna." He expects to get about ten miles per ... Source: Flying magazine (December 1931)

“I recently flew more than twelve thousand miles in a little over a month, through rain, fog, wind and snow, over mountains, cities and deserts, in a three-year-old, second-hand airplane that had already traveled some five hundred thousand miles. During that time I never was very late for an appointment or put a single scratch on myself. And considering that I am hardly an expert pilot at nineteen years of age, I knew that these statements must prove something about modern commercial aviation. But what? Being pretty close to the picture, it in hard for me to see, but It does seem that it would show that aviation is for young people as well as the older and wiser generation. In fact, in New Jersey, a boy can get his pilot's license two years before he can get his driver's license. So this is aimed at the youngsters, hoping they won't take it too seriously, and those who have arrived at years of discretion, first as pure amusement because some darned funny and interesting things can happen in aviation and second, there is a concealed missionary purpose, to show that aviation has arrived as an industry. ...” Source: Flying magazine (October 1931) see the full text in the next section

“Eddie Schneider, 19, of New Jersey, finished the Ford Tour in third place this year, flying his Warner Cessna. Harry Russell, flying a Ford, finished first with a score of 63,7643 and James Smart also flying a Ford finished second with a ...” Source: Flying magazine (October 1931)

“Eddie Schneider had also had a hard landing in the Kentucky hills, reducing the contestants to nine until he caught up. ... trophy also inspired Eddie Schneider, 19- year-old former transcontinental junior record holder, to keep his Cessna in ...” Source: Aero Digest (1931)

“... resulted in three forced mountain landings, the pilots being Harvey Mummert in a Mercury Chic, Joe Meehan in a Great Lakes, and Eddie Schneider in a Cessna. Meehan rejoined the Tour pilots in Knoxville, and Schneider in Montgomery, ...” Source: Airway Age (1931)

“Edward Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey City, NJ, high school student set a new junior transcontinental speed record of 27 hours, 19 minutes between Los Angeles and ...” Source: Airway Age (1931)

“O'Brine and Jackson set a new endurance record; eighteen-year-old Eddie Schneider broke the Junior record in his round trip flight between New ..." Source: The Ohio School of the Air Courier; Ohio School of the Air, Ohio Department of Education (1930)

“Youthful Eddie Schneider continues to be the sensation, as he holds on tenaciously to his position among the select ten. The junior transcontinental record ...” Source: Aeronautical Industry (1930)

“Eddie Schneider, who holds the junior transcontinental record by virtue of flying from New York to Los Angeles and return in fifty-three hours elapsed flying time, was born October 20, 1911, in Red Bank, N. J. [sic], and received his education in ... Eddie, he was christened Eddie, not Edward - got into aviation through the back door as it were. He worked first at Roosevelt Field as a currier [sic] down of the aerial ...” Source: Aero Digest (1930)

“There were teen-age pilots such as Eddie Schneider and Bob Buck were breaking Junior-class records. ...” Source: American Aviation Historical Society Journal (circa 1930)

Research

Karen Russo wrote on November 21, 2006 1:47 PM at Wikipedia: "Hi Mr. Norton, our Aviation Hall of Fame & Museum sells a book entitled from the Balloon to the Moon which was written by our director emeritus, H. V. Pat Reilly. This book is a time line of every even in New Jersey's aviation history. Eddie Schneider is included in this book. In 1933 Eddie Schneider became the principle operator of the Jersey City Airport at Droyer's Point. The airport, a popular general aviation field, was ordered closed the city council under the iron fist of Mayor Frank Hague, on Dec. 31, 1935.Scurrying to find a new base of operations, Schneider planned to establish a flying school at Floyd Bennett Field in Bklyn., but first joined Bert Acosta and other American pilots to fly for the Loyalist cause in the Spanish Civil War. When money promised to the mercenary airmen was not forthcoming, they returned to the United States and picked up their flying careers. Schneider's Brooklyn flying school afforded him a living in the late Depression years. Then tragedy struck in December 1940. While giving a flying lesson to George Herzog of Brooklyn, Schneider's plane collided with one flown by a naval Reserve pilot Ensign Ken Kuehner, and crashed killing him and his student. The Navy plane landed safely. Eddie Schneider was only 28 years old. Hope this info is helpful."

@@ Line 175: / Line 175: @@
 *San Mateo Times; San Mateo, California; Thursday, August 14, 1930; “Edward Schneider, 18-year-old Jersey City High school graduate, took off at ... today in his Cessna cabin monoplane in an attempt to lower ...”
+*Augusta Chronicle; August, Georgia; Friday, August 15, 1930; “Seeks Record. Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Westfield, New Jersey flier ... [[:File:EddieAugustSchneider 1930August15 AugustaChronicle.png|Boy Flier Seeks New Speed Record]]. Plans To Hop Off On Transcontinental Flight This Morning. Altoona, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1930 (Associated Press) A narrow escape from disaster was related by Eddie Schneider ... Schneider said he hoped to reach Los Angeles with an elapsed time lower than the record of 33 hours and 35 minutes.”
 ===August 15, 1930 ===
+*Altoona Tribune of [[Altoona, Pennsylvania]] on August 16 1930; “[[:File:Eddie August Schneider (1911-1940) by the Associated Press in the Altoona Tribune of Altoona, Pennsylvania on 16 August 1930|Junior Coast-to-Coast Flight Record Seeker Lands in St. Louis]]. (Associated Press) ...”
-*Augusta Chronicle; August, Georgia; Friday, August 15, 1930; Seeks Record. Eddie Schneider, 18-year-old Westfield, New Jersey flier ... [[:File:EddieAugustSchneider 1930August15 AugustaChronicle.png|Boy Flier Seeks New Speed Record]]. Plans To Hop Off On Transcontinental Flight This Morning. Altoona, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1930 (Associated Press) A narrow escape from disaster was related by Eddie Schneider ... Schneider said he hoped to reach Los Angeles with an elapsed time lower than the record of 33 hours and 35 minutes.”
-*Riverside Daily Press; Riverside, California; Friday, August 15, 1930; “[[:File:Schneider-EddieAugust 1930August15 RiversideDailyPress.png|Seeks Junior Title]]. Altoona, Pennsylvania, August 15, 1930 (United Press)  Eddie Schneider, 18-year old Jersey City high school student, took off from Stutz Field here at 11:30 a.m., Eastern Standard Time today, resuming his trans-continental flight. Schneider, attempting to break the junior transcontinental flight record, headed for Columbus, Ohio.”
+*Riverside Daily Press; Riverside, California; Friday, August 15, 1930; “[[:File:Schneider-EddieAugust 1930August15 RiversideDailyPress.png|Seeks Junior Title]]. Altoona, Pennsylvania, August 15, 1930 (United Press) Eddie Schneider, 18-year old Jersey City high school student, took off from Stutz Field here at 11:30 a.m., Eastern Standard Time today, resuming his trans-continental flight. Schneider, attempting to break the junior transcontinental flight record, headed for Columbus, Ohio.”
 *Meriden Record; Meriden, Connecticut; Friday, August 15, 1930; “[[:File:Schneider-EddieAugust Meriden Record 1930August15.png |New Jersey Flier Makes Two Forced Landings in Penna]]. Eddie Schneider Seeking Junior Trans - Continental Record Has Narrow Escape. Altoona, Pennsylvania; August 14, 1930 (Associated Press) A narrow escape from disaster was related by Eddie Schneider, 18 year old Westfield, New jersey, pilot on his arrival tonight by plane from Water Street at Schultz airport near Altoona from where ... hopping off westward ... in an attempt to set a new record in transcontinental east to west flight. ... It was Schneider's first warning that he was flying so low, he said. Schneider, upon determining at Water Street that the damage was slight, flew to Altoona ... ”
@@ Line 227: / Line 229: @@
 *Decatur Daily Review; Decatur, Illinois; Friday, August 22, 1930; “[[:File:8638926109417245093.jpg|Schneider Off On Trip To Wichita]]. [[wikipedia: Albuquerque, New Mexico|Albuquerque, New Mexico]], August 22, 1930 ([[wikipedia: Associated Press|Associated Press]]) Eddie Schneider, eighteen year old pilot, left at 7:55 a.m. today (Mountain Standard Time) today for Wichita, Kansas, on the second lap of his attempt to lower the junior west-east flight record of twenty-eight hours and thirty-five minutes, established by the late Frank Goldsborough. Schneider will stop at Wichita tonight and expects to reach New York tomorrow. His elapsed time from Los Angeles to Albuquerque was seven hours, twenty-eight minutes. He lost half an hour in circling to get over the San Bernardino mountains because of his heavy load of gasoline. His magneto compass also failed him and he was forced to fly by [[wikipedia:Dead reckoning|dead reckoning]].”
-*Boston Herald; Boston, Massachusetts; Friday, August 22, 1930; “Eddie Schneider, left, greeted by Richard Barnitz, director of Los Angeles Airport, at finish of his record breaking transcontinental flight from New Jersey. Schneider's flying time was 29 hours 41 minutes. [[:File:EddieAugustSchneider BostonHerald 1930August22.png|Boy Flier in N.M. on West-East Hop]]. Schneider  Expects to Make 600-Mile Flight to Wichita in 6 Hours. Albequerque, New Mexico; August 21, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider who is attempting to set a west to east transcontinental junior flight record laned here at 3:15 P.M. (Mountains Standard Time) with elapsed time from Los Angeles of 7 hours 28 minutes. Schneider will spend the night here, ... and had arranged for its care.
+*Boston Herald; Boston, Massachusetts; Friday, August 22, 1930; “Eddie Schneider, left, greeted by Richard Barnitz, director of Los Angeles Airport, at finish of his record breaking transcontinental flight from New Jersey. Schneider's flying time was 29 hours 41 minutes. [[:File:EddieAugustSchneider BostonHerald 1930August22.png|Boy Flier in N.M. on West-East Hop]]. Schneider Expects to Make 600-Mile Flight to Wichita in 6 Hours. Albequerque, New Mexico; August 21, 1930 (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider who is attempting to set a west to east transcontinental junior flight record laned here at 3:15 P.M. (Mountains Standard Time) with elapsed time from Los Angeles of 7 hours 28 minutes. Schneider will spend the night here, ... and had arranged for its care.
 ===August 23, 1930  ===
@@ Line 250: / Line 252: @@
 ===August 26, 1930===
-*Daily Register Gazette; Rockford, Illinois; Tuesday, August 26, 1930; “[[:Image:Eddie August Schneider August 26, 1930 Daily Register Gazette.png|Shatters Records.]] (By Pacific and Atlantic) Eddie Schneider, (above) a smiling a grimy, 18-year-old Jersey City, N. J., boy came down out of the clouds in his little red monoplane onto Roosevelt Field, L. I. with three continental air records in his possession. The East-West, the West-East and the round trip. All records were  formerly held by Frank Goldsborough boy ace who died in crash recently.”
+*Daily Register Gazette; Rockford, Illinois; Tuesday, August 26, 1930; “[[:Image:Eddie August Schneider August 26, 1930 Daily Register Gazette.png|Shatters Records.]] (By Pacific and Atlantic) Eddie Schneider, (above) a smiling a grimy, 18-year-old Jersey City, N. J., boy came down out of the clouds in his little red monoplane onto Roosevelt Field, L. I. with three continental air records in his possession. The East-West, the West-East and the round trip. All records were formerly held by Frank Goldsborough boy ace who died in crash recently.”
 ===August 27, 1930 ===

Changes: Eddie August Schneider (1911-1940)/Bibliography with text and links