Jersey Journal/1952/Memorial to J. C. Flier

Memorial to J. C. Flier. Smithsonian Now Has Eddie Schneider Niche. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C., has established a niche to memorialize the late Eddie Schneider, former Jersey City resident who was once the nation's youngest aviation record holder, it was learned today. Mrs. Gretchen Schneider Black, the flier's widow, says an aviation library which the couple compiled before his death in a plane crash in 1940 has been "gratefully accepted" by the institution, which will display it in the National Air Museum as the Eddie Schneider Memorial Library. A collection of Schneider's scrapbooks, mementos and licenses, including his international flying license, signed by Orville Wright, is also a permanent exhibit at the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences in New York. Held Records. Schneider held the east-west, west-east and round-trip junior transcontinental flying records in 1930, at the age of 18. He crossed the country in his famous red Cessna monoplane in the record-breaking time of 29 hours and 41 minutes. Developing an interest, in aviation while a student at Dickinson High School, young Schneider left school at the age of 15 to work as an airplane mechanic at Roosevelt Field, Long Island. After obtaining his pilot's license and establishing the cross-country records in 1930, Schneider became manager of the old Jersey City Airport, located on the site of Roosevelt Stadium at Droyer's Point. While there, during the year of 1934, he taught many Hudson County residents to fly. Schneider enlisted in the Yankee Escadrille of the Spanish Loyalist Air Corps in 1930 and flew antiquated aircraft on battle missions in that country several months. Becoming convinced the communist regime was directing Loyalist activities, he returned to the United States. Employed by various airlines following his return to this country, Schneider was an instructor for a flying service when he met his death December 23, 1940, at the age of 29. A student pilot with him also was killed when their light plane was in a mid-air collision over Floyd Bennett Airport, Brooklyn with a naval reserve plane. The late pilot's wife, who is the former Gretchen Hahnen of Jersey City, was at one time director of the Aviation Club of The Jersey Journal's Junior Club Magazine. She also held the post of New Jersey governor of the Women's Aeronautic Association. Mrs. Schneider Black is now a resident of Fort Worth, Texas.