Jersey Journal/1941/Eddie Schneider

Eddie Schneider
How many boys who thrill to the drone of an airplane motor felt a sincere pang of sorrow upon learning of the death of Aviator Schneider? Eddie lived in Jersey City most of his life, and was one of the most ardent advocates of a large Jersey City airport. He was one of the first to point out the advantages an airport brings to a city, and always visioned, in the not-too-distant future, a large field which would serve both military and civil aviation here in Hudson County. It is ironical that Schneider should go crashing to his death as the result of a mid-air collision. The plane he was flying, one of the light-type planes so widely, used to teach flying to the young men and women of today, was struck from behind by a Naval Reserve training plane, which sheared off the tail of Schneider's plane and sent it plummeting into the waters adjoining Floyd Bennett Airport, Brooklyn. Schneider, during the 12 years he was flying, was constantly practicing air safety, and impressed upon the hundreds of students he taught to fly that tomfoolery had no place in the air. When he managed Jersey City Airport in 1935, shortly before he left for Spain to fly for the Loyalist Air Force, the young aviator did much to advance the cause of aviation — safe aviation — in Jersey City. And even earlier, back in 1930, when he established a new transcontinental junior speed record, the young Jersey City pilot, then only 18 years old, displayed the same calm, sane flying skill which brought him national. fame. The death of Eddie Schneider brought to an end, the career of a pioneer. It wrote "finis" to the bright flame of a young Jersey Cityite who blazed an air trail that quickened the pulse of hundreds of young hero-worshippers. It it, to be hoped that Schneider's death will serve to save the life of some other pilot by stressing?, more firmly, the lesson Schneider preached: "There's no place for tomfoolery in the air."