Eddie August Schneider (1911-1940)



Eddie August Henry Schneider (1911-1940) Record Holding Aviator; Fought for the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War; Died in a Plane Crash (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)

Name
His name appears as "Eddie August Henry Schneider" and his sister as "Alice Paula Schneider" in the 1914 passport application of Emil August Schneider (1884-1955).

Parents

 * Emil August Schneider (1884-1955)
 * Inga Pedersen (1885-1927)

Birth
He was born on October 20, 1911 at 2nd Avenue and 17th Street in Manhattan, New York County, New York City, New York in the USA.

Siblings
Eddie had one full sibling: Alice Violetta Schneider (1913-2002) who married John Harms (1905-1985). His father, Emil, remarried after his mother, Inga, died. Emil's second wife was Margaret Jacobsen (1896-1989), and they had a child.

New York to New Jersey
The family moved from Manhattan, New York City to Red Bank, Monmouth County, New Jersey and then to Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey.

Drop out of school
Eddie appears to have dropped out of school at age 15, but later graduated from Dickinson High School in Jersey City around 1927 or 1928.

Death of Mother
In 1927 his mother, Inga, died. The remaining family then visited Germany and Norway to be with relatives.

Aviator
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. In April 1930 Eddie was living in Hempstead, Nassau County, Long Island with a friend named Carl Schneider (1898-?) who was not related. Carl was working as a mechanic. Emil Schneider and Margaret may have been living at 114 Carlton Avenue in Jersey City in 1930. The New York Times reported on July 30, 1930: "Boy Pilot Seeks Record; Jersey City Student Set to Fly to Pacific Coast and Back in August."

Junior Transcontinental Air Speed Record
On August 25, 1930 Eddie set a round-trip transcontinental record for pilots under the age of twenty-one years in his Cessna. The elapsed time was 57 hours, and 14 minutes between Los Angeles and Jersey City. When he landed at Roosevelt Field on Long Island his first words were to his father: "Hello Pop, I made it". The previous record holder was Frank Herbert Goldsborough (1910-1930) who died in a plane crash on July 16, 1930. Robert Nietzel Buck (1917-2007) then took the record from Eddie. Robert Buck said on June 28, 2005: "I didn't know him well and only met [him] a couple of times, but I remember him as a quiet, good looking blond, and very modest. I believe he was a credit to aviation and I always admired him."

Itinerary

 * Westfield, New Jersey; departure: August 14, 1930, 5:55 am, edt
 * Williamsburg, Pennsylvania; departure: August 15, 1930, 12:30 pm
 * Columbus, Ohio
 * St. Louis, Missouri; departure: August 16, 1930, 1:25 pm
 * Wichita, Kansas; arrival: August 16, 1930, 7:45 pm
 * Santa Rosa, New Mexico aka Anton Chico, New Mexico
 * Albuquerque, New Mexico; arrival: 5:35 am, mst, August 18, 1930; departure: August 18, 1930, 8:05 am, mst
 * Los Angeles, California; arrival: 7:13 am pst; departure: August 21, 1930, 6:17:30 pm, pst
 * Columbus, Ohio
 * Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York; arrival 4:03 pm, cst
 * Chicago, Illinois (to attend National Air Races)

National Air Tour
In 1930 and 1931 Eddie participated in the National Air Tour and he won the Great Lakes Trophy.

Hoover Air League
In 1932 he worked for the Hoover Air League.

Marriage
He married Gretchen Hahnen (1902-1986) in Manhattan in New York City on June 02, 1934. Gretchen was originally from Des Moines, Iowa. She was a member the Jersey City Young Woman's Christian Association (YWCA) and was director of the Aviation Club of The Jersey Journal, Junior Club Magazine. Eddie met her at an Aviation Club function. Their certificate was number "14174".

Jersey City Airport
In 1935 Eddie leased the Jersey City Airport and ran his flying school from there until the field was converted into a stadium. The New York Times reported on September 26, 1935 on page 08: "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."

Spanish Civil War
On November 11, 1936, Eddie left for Spain to fly for the Loyalists in the Revolution. He was living at 50 Jones Street in Jersey City at the time. Eddie was never paid what he was promised and he returned to the US in January of 1937. On January 01, 1937 the New York Times reported: "With stories of each other's adventures and none about their own, Bertrand Blanchard Acosta (1895-1854), Gordon Berry, Eddie Schneider and Frederick Lord returned to Paris this morning from two months' experience in the civil war in Spain." The New York Times on January 16, 1937 stated the following: "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." In the late editions of The New York Times on January 16, 1937, and in the early edition 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 [Attorney].

American Airlines
In 1940 Eddie stood at 68 inches and weighed 158 pounds. He had blond hair and blue eyes and had a scar on his right thumb. In June of 1940 he began work for American Airlines at Newark airport in New Jersey. He then moved to Jackson Heights on Long Island, when American Airlines eastern terminal moved to LaGuardia Field. He took a job as a civilian instructor for the US Army at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn with the Archie Baxter Flying Service.

Death in Plane Crash
On December 23, 1940, Eddie was killed in a training accident at Floyd Bennett Field at age 29 when he was training George Wilson Herzog (1903-1940). He was flying at about 600 feet, about to land when Navy pilot Kenneth A. Kuehner, age 25, of Minister, Ohio struck the tail assembly of Eddie's Piper Cub. Eddie's plane went into a spin and crashed into Deep Creek just off Flatbush Avenue. Both Herzog and Schneider were dead at the scene of impact. The bodies were taken to King's County Hospital. His obituary appeared in the Jersey Journal and The New York Times on December 24, 1940. His death certificate lists the cause of death as "crushed chest & abdomen; hemothorax & hemoperitoneum: in aeroplane crash". He was living at 3250 93rd Street in Brooklyn when he died. His Death Certificate number was "25366" and his Medical Examiner Case Number was "4418".

Memories about Eddie August Schneider
Gretchen Hahnen wrote: 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. license was signed personally by Wilbur Wright. 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 La Guardia 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.

Schneider Makes Record Flight East
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 ...

Relationships
Eddie August Schneider (1911-1940) was the second cousin, twice removed of Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ); and was the second cousin, twice removed of Judith Kaye Grothe (1947- ).

George H. Williams World War I Aviation Library
Eddie's papers and photographs are archived at the George H. Williams World War I Aviation Library at The University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas archive contains: The items marked with an asterisk are duplicated in the Norton archive.
 * Four page biographical sketch of Eddie by an unknown author. *
 * Passenger vehicle registration. *
 * Selective Service registration card. *
 * Federal Communications Telephone 3rd Class card. *
 * 1938 New York driver’s license. *
 * 1937 New York driver’s license. *
 * TWA Courtesy Card
 * Newspaper article of attempted rescue of Eddie and his student from wreckage.
 * Various photos
 * 8 x 10 B&W photo captioned EAH Schneider Flying School. Shows four women in flying gear, one accepting a trophy from Eddie.
 * 8 x 10 B&W photo of Schneider standing in front of an aircraft.
 * 8 x 10 B&W photo of Eddie next aircraft with two unidentified people.
 * 8 x 10 B&W photo of Eddie shaking hands with unidentified man, second man behind also unidentified, all standing in front of an aircraft under construction.
 * 8 x 10 B&W photo of Schneider with group of unidentified people.
 * 8 x 10 B&W photo of Schneider standing in front of an aircraft with unidentified person.
 * 8 x 10 B&W photo of Schneider standing in next to aircraft with two unidentified women.
 * Eddie with motorcycle cop, Eddie holding a trophy with an aircraft on top.
 * Eddie shaking hands with unidentified man in front of flowers with unidentified woman behind.
 * 8 x 10 B&W photo of Schneider sitting in aircraft cockpit.
 * Photograph of D. Irwin, signed by her, thanking Eddie. She was first woman student of his school.
 * 8 x 10 B&W portrait photo of Schneider standing in leather flight jacket, helmet and goggles holding a cigar.

Other archives

 * The Naida Muriel Freudenberg (1915-1998) Collection had the 1930 photograph; and an December 14, 1930 newspaper article on the planned but never started trip around the world.
 * The Associated Press has a single photo that was used by the New York Times for his obituary.
 * The Ralph Freudenberg (1903-1980) and Nora Belle Conklin (1902-1963) Collection had the circa 1918 photograph of Inga and Emil.
 * New York State Vital Records provided the death certificate.
 * Eleanor Margaret Schneider (1930- ) has a collection of photographs.
 * Richard Young Hahnen (1946- ) in Hopkins, Minnesota has a collection of photographs.
 * The Eddie A. Schneider Memorial Library consists of 67 books, 35 pamphlets, and a painting are housed at the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.. The material was donated by his widow, Gretchen Frances Hahnen (1902-1986), while she was living in Fort Worth, Texas. They also have two photos.[75]
 * Footage of his landing from Universal Newsreel does not appear in their archive. The 1930 newsreels have been transferred to DVD and indexed for August 18, 1930 and November 6, 1930, but the two weeks in between is either no longer extant, or wasn't transferred. The March of Time does not have any footage based on a search in their index.

National Air and Space Museum

 * Books from his personal collection
 * 79-1565 B&W photo of Schneider with bandage around his wrist
 * A-2372 B&W photo of Schneider leaning on propeller of his airplane, autographed on June 28, 1931

Rediscovery
Both Selma Louise Freudenberg (1921- ) of Jersey City, New Jersey and Muriel Elaine Jensen (1928- ) of Chicago, Illinois knew of Eddie Schneider and was told he were related to the family somehow. The relationship is through Eddie's mother who was from Farsund, Norway. Selma's sister had a photograph and a newspaper clipping of Eddie which initiated this research.

Relationships
Eddie August Schneider (1911-1940) was the second cousin, twice removed of Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ); and was the second cousin, twice removed of Judith Kaye Grothe (1947- ).