Edward T. Schneider

Edward T. Schneider was a research test pilot at NASA’s Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, from 1983 to 2000.

During his 18-year career at Dryden, Schneider was best known for his work as project pilot for the F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) during a nine-year span, becoming the first pilot in history to conduct multi-axis thrust vectored flight.

Schneider also served as project pilot for the F-18 Systems Research Aircraft, the F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire research program, the Boeing 720 Controlled Impact Demonstration, the F-14 Automatic Rudder Interconnect and Laminar Flow research programs, the F-104 Aeronautical Research and Microgravity programs, the F-15 Advanced Control Technology for Integrated Vehicles (ACTIVE), the SR-71 high-speed research project, the NASA B-52B launch aircraft and the F-15B aeronautical testbed aircraft.

Schneider took on additional management functions during the latter part of his tenure at Dryden. From July 1998 through March 2000, Schneider served as the acting chief of Flight Operations’ Flight Crew Branch, heading a team of 13 research pilots. He then served as deputy director of Flight Operations from March through September 2000. In this position, Schneider helped to manage the Avionics, Operations Engineering, Flight Crew, Quality Inspection, Aircraft Maintenance and Modification and Shuttle and Flight Operations Support branches.

In September 2000, Schneider transferred from Dryden to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he was a staff pilot and T-38 instructor pilot. When he left Dryden, he had accumulated more than 6,700 flight hours in 84 different models of aircraft and had flown “first flights” on five unique aircraft configurations. Schneider retired from NASA in 2004.

Prior to joining NASA, Schneider served on active duty with the U.S. Navy from 1968 to 1983. Following squadron service, he graduated in 1973 from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland, as the youngest graduate in the school’s history. He then served as an engineering test pilot and test pilot school instructor at the Naval Air Test Center in Patuxent River. He also served as the F-4 program manager and senior test pilot at the North Island Naval Air Station in California.

Schneider received a bachelor’s degree from Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Kentucky. He is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval War College’s College of Naval Command and Staff and earned a master’s degree in 1978 from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

An active member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots since 1974, Schneider became Fellow of the Society in 1993 and served as its president from 1993 to 1994. He also served as a director of the Warbirds of America. In 1996, he received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Chanute Flight Award for the conduct of hazardous F-18 High Angle-of-Attack flight testing. In 1998, he was inducted into the James B. Taylor Jr. Memorial Room and Carrier Aviation Test Pilot Hall of Honor onboard the USS Yorktown (CV-10). Schneider was honored with the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 2004, and was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in Lancaster, California, in September 2005.