Eddie Schneider
Eddie August Schneider (October 20, 1911 - December 23, 1940) set the transcontinental airspeed record for pilots under the age of twenty-one in 1930.
Birth and siblings
He was born in 1911 at 2nd Avenue and 17th Street in Manhattan in New York. His father was Emil Schneider (c1880-1955), a banker born in Germany; and Inga Pedersen (1885-1927), who was born in Farsund, Norway. Eddie had one full sibling: Alice Schneider who married a Harms. Emil remarried after Inga died. Emil's second wife was Margaret and they had a child: Eleanore Schneider, who was Eddie's half-sibling.
Early years
The family moved from Manhattan to Red Bank, New Jersey and then to Jersey City, New Jersey. Eddie graduated from Dickinson High School in Jersey City in 1927, the same year that his mother died. After his mother's death, Eddie and his parents visited Germany and Norway to visit with relatives. In Germany Eddie went on an airplane ride and then aviation became his obsession. In 1929 he trained at Roosevelt Field on Long Island and became the youngest person in the United States to receive a commercial pilot's license. That same year he also received a mechanics license, becoming the youngest licensed mechanic in New York. In April 1930 Eddie was living in Hempstead, Nassau County, Long Island with a cousin from Germany named Carl Schenider (1898-?). Carl was working as a mechanic. Emil Schneider and Margaret may have been living at 114 Carlton Avenue in Jersey City in 1930. Eddie flew a Cessna monoplane number C9092.
Transcontinental air speed record
The New York Times reported on July 30, 1930 that Eddie intended to fly to the Pacific coast and back that August. On August 25, 1930 Eddie set the round-trip transcontinental record for pilots under the age of twenty-one years in his Cessna using a Warner Scarab engine. The New York Times covered each of his refueling stops in the race. He flew from Westfield, New Jersey on August 14, 1930 to Los Angeles, California in 4 days with a combined flying time of 29 hours and 55 minutes. He lowered the East to West record by 4 hours and 22 minutes. He then made the return trip from Los Angeles to Roosevelt Field in New York in 27 hours and 19 minutes, lowering the West to East record by 1 hour and 36 minutes. His total elapsed time for the round trip was 57 hours and 14 minutes, breaking the preceding record for the round trip. Frank H. Goldsborough held the previous record which was 62 hours and 58 minutes. When Eddie landed his first words were to his father: "Hello Pop, I made it".
1931 National Air Tour
In 1931 Eddie participated in the National Air Tour in his Cessna and he won the Great Lakes Trophy. The following comes from a New York paper:
- The second day of the 1931 National Air Tour for the Edsel Ford Trophy today, was to find the 14 competing planes and a dozen accompanying planes en route from Le Roy, N.Y., to Binghamton, N.Y. From Binghamton, the tour is to fly south and west as far as San Antonio, Tex., returning to Ford Airport July 25. A holiday crowd of about 5,000 persons witnessed the start of the tour from the Ford Airport Saturday morning. Col. Clarence M. Young, assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics, came from Cleveland to witness the start. Fifteen Army planes from Selfridge Field stunted over the field just before the takeoff and accompanied the tour planes as far as Walker Airport, Walkerville, Ont. At Walker Airport, where the tour planes stopped for a long luncheon hour, they joined the large number of planes participating in the Trans-Canada Air Pageant there. Most of the racers got off to a bad start from Ford Airport. Only flying a Mercury Chic, Capt. William Lancaster, flying a Bird and Eddie Schneider, flying a Cessna, got away on time. Leonard Flo, flying a Bird cabin plane, was delayed more than a half hour when he broke a tail skid just before the takeoff and the two Ford entries were 15 minutes late. The racers were timed from the minute they were supposed to take off. Other entries are Charles F. Sugg, Capt. Walter Henderson and Jack Story, flying Buhl entries; James H. Smart and Harry Russell, flying Ford trimotors; Joseph Meehan, flying a Great Lakes; Lowell Bayles, flying a Gee Bee; Eddie Stinson, flying a Stinson and George Dickson, flying an Aeronca. Among the well-known pilots flying accompanying planes are Maj. James H. Doolittle, referee of the tour, who is accompanied by Mrs. Doolittle and Mrs. Ray W. Brown, wife of the assistant tour starter; Capt. Lewis A. Yancey, who flew with Roger Q. Willliams across the Atlantic in 1928, who is piloting an autogiro in the tour; Walter E. Lees, Detroit pilot who holds the world's non-refueling endurance record, and George Haldeman, who attempted to fly the Atlantic with Ruth Elder. Maj. Thomas G. Lanphier, former commandant at Selfridge Field, is accompanying the tour as far as Binghamton as a passenger. Night stops after tonight will be as follows: Monday, Bradford, Pa,; Tuesday, Wheeling, W. Va.; Wednesday, Huntington, W. Va.; Thursday, Knoxviille, Tenn.; Friday, Memphis; Saturday, Birmingham, Ala.; July 12, Montgomery, Ala.; July 13, New Orleans; July 14, Shreveport, La.; July 15, Houston, Tex.; July 16, San Antonio; July 17 and 18, Fort Worth, Tex.; July 19, Ponca City, Okla.; July 20, Kansas City; July 21, Lincoln, Neb.; July 22, Omaha; July 23, Davenport, Ia.; July 24, Kalamazoo; July 25, Detroit. The tour will cover more than 6,000 miles, visiting 18 states. The Ford Trophy will go to the pilot whose plane performs most efficiently, as judged by the scoring formula, over the entire distance. A separate trophy, the Great Lakes Light