Eddie August Schneider

His mother was Inga Karoline Eldora Pedersen (1882–1927), who was born in Farsund, Norway.

His father was Emil August Schneider (1886–1955) who was born in Bielefeld, Germany.

Eddie August Henry Schneider (October 20, 1911 – December 23, 1940) was an American aviator who set three transcontinental airspeed records for pilots under the age of twenty-one in 1930.

His plane was a Cessna Model AW with a Warner-Scarab engine, one of only 48 built, that he called "The Kangaroo".

He set the east-to-west, then the west-to-east, and the combined round trip record.

He was the youngest certificated pilot in the United States, and the youngest certified airplane mechanic.

He was a pilot in the Spanish Civil War in the Yankee Squadron.

Schneider was born on October 20, 1911, at 2nd Avenue and 17th Street in Manhattan in New York.

He was never called Edward, he was baptized as "Eddie Auguste Henry Schneider" on November 12, 1911, at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Queens, New York City.

Eddie had one full sibling: Alice Violetta Schneider (1913–2002) who married John Harms (1905–1985).

The family moved from Manhattan to Red Bank, New Jersey, and then to Jersey City, New Jersey, by 1920 where his father owned a delicatessen.

Eddie attended William L. Dickinson High School and dropped out of school in 1926, at age 15 to go to work as a plane mechanic at Roosevelt Field in Hempstead, Long Island.

His mother died In 1927 after which he, his father, and sister visited Bielefeld and Farsund to visit with relatives.

In Germany Eddie went on a plane ride from Hamburg to Hanover and then aviation became his obsession.

Eddie's father bought him a used, red, 1927 Cessna Model AW monoplane with tail number C9092.

It already had been flown five hundred thousand air miles.

He called it "the kangaroo".

In 1928–1929 he trained at Roosevelt Field on Long Island and became the youngest person in the United States to receive a commercial pilot certificate.

That same year he also received a mechanics certificate, becoming the youngest certificated airplane mechanic in New York.

In April 1930 Eddie was living in Hempstead, Long Island with Carl Schneider (1898–?) who was also working as a mechanic.

Eddie reported that he intended to fly to the Pacific coast and back on July 30, 1930.

On August 25, 1930, he set the round-trip transcontinental air speed record for pilots under the age of twenty-one years in his Cessna using a Warner Scarab engine.

The trip was sponsored by Richfield Oil.

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 Airfield 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 Herbert Goldsborough held the previous record which was 62 hours and 58 minutes.

When Eddie landed in New York on August 25, 1930, his first words were to his father: "Hello Pop, I made it."

He was carrying letters from the Mayor John Clinton Porter of Los Angeles, to Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City.

Combined he set three records.

After setting the transcontinental speed record he entered in the 1930 Ford National Reliability Air Tour in Chicago, which ran from August 23, 1930, to September 1, 1930.

He won the Great Lakes Trophy.

Nancy Hopkins also flew in the tour that year.

In 1931 Eddie participated in, what was the last Ford National Reliability Air Tour, in his Cessna.

A defect in his engine forced a landing while flying over a mountainous section of Kentucky.

He made a forced landing in a corn patch on the side of the mountain.

A new engine was sent to him and after a difficult takeoff, he went on to win first place for single engine aircraft, and finished third overall.

Time wrote:

He died in an airplane crash in 1940, while training another pilot, when a Boeing-Stearman Model 75 belonging to the United States Navy Reserve overtook him and clipped his plane's tail at Floyd Bennett Field.