Saturday, November 10, 2007

In 1933 Eddie Schneider became the principle operator of the Jersey City Airport at Droyer's Point

In 1933 Eddie Schneider became the principle operator of the Jersey City Airport at Droyer's Point. The airport, a popular general aviation field, was ordered closed by the city council under the iron fist of Mayor Frank Hague, on December 31, 1935. Scurrying to find a new base of operations, Schneider planned to establish a flying school at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, but first joined Bert Acosta and other American pilots to fly for the Loyalist cause in the Spanish Civil War. When money promised to the mercenary airmen was not forthcoming, they returned to the United States and picked up their flying careers. Schneider's Brooklyn flying school afforded him a living in the late Depression years. Then tragedy struck in December 1940. While giving a flying lesson to George Herzog of Brooklyn, Schneider's plane collided with one flown by a naval Reserve pilot Ensign Ken Kuehner, and crashed killing him and his student. The Navy plane landed safely. Eddie Schneider was only 28 years old.

Source: H. V. Pat Reilly; Balloon to the Moon (1992); ISBN 0963229508

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