Eddie August Schneider - Early Years

Early Years

The family moved from Manhattan to Red Bank, New Jersey, and then they moved to Jersey City, New Jersey by 1920. 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. In 1927 his mother died, then, Eddie and his parents visited Bielefeld, Germany and Farsund, Norway to visit with relatives. In Germany Eddie went on a plane ride and then aviation became his obsession. 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 flew a red Cessna monoplane with tail number C9092.