Richard Schreder
Encyclopedia
Richard E. Schreder was an American
naval aviator and sailplane developer, responsible for design and development of the HP/RS-series kit sailplanes marketed from 1962 until about 1982. Schreder also founded and ran Airmate, a successful drafting supplies company.
hang glider that he built from plans found in a Popular Mechanics
magazine. At 19 he built his first powered airplane, a single-seater powered by a Henderson Motorcycle
engine.
After receiving a BS
in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toledo
in 1938, Schreder joined the United States Navy
as a Naval Aviation Cadet. He served in the Navy until 1952, rising to the rank of Commander.
While in the Navy, Schreder was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
for the sinking of the German U-boat
U-158
off Bermuda on 30 June 1942 while commanding a Martin PBM Mariner
. Schreder's airmanship and marksmanship were such that he achieved a direct hit on the deck of the submarine with a depth charge. Schreder and his crew were initially disappointed when the depth charge did not explode on impact, and that it merely lodged itself into the teak planking of the deck. However, they continued to circle the site after the U-boat submerged, and observed that the charge detonated after the sub carried it down to its pre-set trigger depth.
After leaving the Navy, Schreder founded a successful drafting supplies
business in Toledo, Ohio
, and later moved it to Bryan, Ohio
. His fascination with flight continued unabated while nurturing this business, and he continued to experiment with small aircraft when he could. His next design, an all-metal low-wing single-seater called the Airmate 5, won the Experimental Aircraft Association
's best workmanship award in 1954. A high-wing four-seater with a V-tail
soon followed, but was abandoned before completion when Schreder tried soaring
and was immediately hooked.
Schreder immediately bought a Bowlus Baby Albatross, and later a Schweizer SGS 1-23
. The 1-23 was damaged on Schreder's first flight in it when it was drawn into a thunderstorm and pelted with golfball-sized hailstones. After a week of hasty repairs, Schreder flew this ship to a second-place finish in the 1955 National Championships in Grand Prairie, Texas
.
In 1956, Schreder built the HP-7 and flew it to a fourth-place finish in that year's US National Championship contest. The HP-7 was quickly followed by the HP-8, in which Schreder flew to victory in the 1958 US Nationals in Bishop, California
. Schreder also used his HP-8 to establish speed records over 100, 200, and 300 km courses.
specifically for kit manufacture and construction by sailplane homebuilders. This project was handed off to Heliosoar, a company founded by Stephen DuPont to manufacture sailplane kits.
Schreder immediately started on the HP-11, completing the prototype in time to fly it to a third-place finish in the 1963 World Soaring Championships in Argentina
. Upon returning to the States, Schreder refined the design slightly, added retractable landing gear, and offered it in kit form as the HP-11A.
Over the next few years, Schreder leapfrogged through the HP-series by successively developing new wings and then new fuselages for his glider designs. During this time Schreder also formalized his glider kit business, incorporating under the name Bryan Aircraft, Inc.
In 1966 Schreder flew his new HP-14 to victory in the US National Championships in Reno, Nevada, and created strong demand for HP-14 kits. This was his third national championship, having also won in 1958 and 1960.
Schreder's next design, the HP-15
, was somewhat disappointing. Its high-aspect-ratio wing gave it good glider performance at high speed, but yielded too high a sink rate while at thermalling speed.
Building new wings for the HP-15 fuselage produced the HP-16. These new 15-meter wings were Schreder's first large foray into an innovative construction method featuring closely spaced PVC foam
ribs (usually on 4" centers) bonded to an aluminum wing spar, to which was bonded a thin aluminum skin. The closely spaced ribs, combined with similarly-spaced foam interstitials, resulted in a cellular structure that yields great strength and stiffness with low weight. The HP-16 wing spars were made in inboard and outboard sections, each 12 feet (3.66 m) long, and each machined to an I-beam cross-section from billets of solid 7075-T6 aluminum and then spliced together to yield a 7.5m wing panel spar. The machining of these aluminum I beams would have been cost-prohibitive under normal circumstances, but was accomplished as something of a personal challenge by Schreder's friend John Mazur at his shop in Long Island, New York.
Following the HP-16, Schreder set to work on the RS-15
, which combined the HP-16 wings and a new pod-and-boom fuselage. This ship was the only Schreder sailplane design to be named outside the HP nomenclature. The RS stood for Richard Schreder, and the 15 for its fifteen meters of span.
With his following design, the HP-17, Schreder developed a new, more cost-effective method for making wing spars. These spars featured a rectangular box section consisting of machined C-channels for the upper and lower caps, joined by shear web panels riveted to the flanges of the spar cap channels. These channels were again manufactured by Mazur, and were carefully made so that the floor of the channel tapers in thickness from 3/8" at the root to 1/16" at the tip.
It is not known whether the HP-17 actually flew, but the wing spars that Schreder developed for it found good use on Schreder's next and most popular kit sailplane, the HP-18
.
First flown in 1974, the HP-18 was available in kit form in 1975, and in 1976 was featured in a series of six articles in Soaring Magazine
that described every detail of its construction. In the spirit of the Popular Mechanics article from which Schreder built his first glider at age 9, the Soaring articles reproduced the HP-18 plans and assembly instructions in sufficient detail for a resourcful and mechanically-inclined individual to build the aircraft almost from scratch. However, most builders found it easier to purchase the HP-18 kit and its full-size plans from Bryan Aircraft.
Through the 1970s, homebuilt sailplanes including Schreder's kits fell somewhat into decline with the rise in performance and popularity of imported European composite ships. Although the HP-18 was his most popular offering, it was also the last of Schreder's kit sailplanes. After the HP-18, Schreder tried his hand at manufacturing carbon-fiber composite wing spars, and abandoned it as too troublesome after making the one set, which was used by Henry Preiss
to complete the one-off HP-19.
Schreder's HP-20 combined the HP-19 fuselage with an innovative new wing spar consisting of leaves of aluminum laminated and bonded together under pressure. The HP-21 was intended to be a variable-geometry self-launching sailplane based on the RS-15 fuselage and featuring retractable sailcloth wing extensions along the inboard trailing edges of its constant-chord wing, but was abandoned before completion. The HP-22 was to be a 2-seat amphibious sailplane, again self-launching, but was abandoned after the wings and most of the fuselage hull were completed.
for small aircraft. Schreder envisioned such a powerplant as being ideal for self-launcing sailplanes. His first attempts featured pulsejet engines with their bodies contained within the blades of a propeller, and exhausting through nozzles deflected 90 degrees so as to cause the propeller to spin. Though some success was attained, Schreder found difficulty in containing the internal pressures so as to prevent the engine bodies from reverting to round cross-section. Also, these engines were quite loud and not very fuel-efficient.
Schreder died in 2002 from complications of diabetes.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
naval aviator and sailplane developer, responsible for design and development of the HP/RS-series kit sailplanes marketed from 1962 until about 1982. Schreder also founded and ran Airmate, a successful drafting supplies company.
Early life
At age 9 Schreder built his first airplane, a biplaneBiplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
hang glider that he built from plans found in a Popular Mechanics
Popular Mechanics
Popular Mechanics is an American magazine first published January 11, 1902 by H. H. Windsor, and has been owned since 1958 by the Hearst Corporation...
magazine. At 19 he built his first powered airplane, a single-seater powered by a Henderson Motorcycle
Henderson Motorcycle
Henderson produced 4-cylinder motorcycles from 1912 until 1931. They were the largest and fastest motorcycles of their time, and appealed to sport riders and police departments. Police favored them for traffic patrol because they were faster than anything on the roads...
engine.
After receiving a BS
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toledo
University of Toledo
The University of Toledo is a public university in Toledo, Ohio, United States. The Carnegie Foundation classified the university as "Doctoral/Research Extensive."-National recognition:...
in 1938, Schreder joined the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
as a Naval Aviation Cadet. He served in the Navy until 1952, rising to the rank of Commander.
While in the Navy, Schreder was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)
The Distinguished Flying Cross is a medal awarded to any officer or enlisted member of the United States armed forces who distinguishes himself or herself in support of operations by "heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight, subsequent to November 11, 1918." The...
for the sinking of the German U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
U-158
German submarine U-158 (1941)
German submarine U-158 was a Type IXC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine built for service during World War II.Her keel was laid down on November 1, 1940 by AG Weser in Bremen...
off Bermuda on 30 June 1942 while commanding a Martin PBM Mariner
PBM Mariner
The Martin PBM Mariner was a patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War period. It was designed to complement the PBY Catalina in service. A total of 1,366 were built, with the first example flying on 18 February 1939 and the type entering service in September 1940.-Design and...
. Schreder's airmanship and marksmanship were such that he achieved a direct hit on the deck of the submarine with a depth charge. Schreder and his crew were initially disappointed when the depth charge did not explode on impact, and that it merely lodged itself into the teak planking of the deck. However, they continued to circle the site after the U-boat submerged, and observed that the charge detonated after the sub carried it down to its pre-set trigger depth.
After leaving the Navy, Schreder founded a successful drafting supplies
Technical drawing
Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
business in Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
, and later moved it to Bryan, Ohio
Bryan, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 8,333 people, 3,528 households, and 2,155 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,821.7 people per square mile . There were 3,733 housing units at an average density of 816.1 per square mile...
. His fascination with flight continued unabated while nurturing this business, and he continued to experiment with small aircraft when he could. His next design, an all-metal low-wing single-seater called the Airmate 5, won the Experimental Aircraft Association
Experimental Aircraft Association
The Experimental Aircraft Association is an international organization of aviation enthusiasts based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Since its inception it has grown internationally with over 160,000 members and about 1,000 chapters worldwide....
's best workmanship award in 1954. A high-wing four-seater with a V-tail
V-tail
In aircraft, a V-tail is an unconventional arrangement of the tail control surfaces that replaces the traditional fin and horizontal surfaces with two surfaces set in a V-shaped configuration when viewed from the front or rear of the aircraft...
soon followed, but was abandoned before completion when Schreder tried soaring
Lift (soaring)
Gliding flight is heavier-than-air flight without the use of thrust. It is employed by gliding animals and by aircraft such as gliders. The most common human application of gliding flight is in sport and recreation using aircraft designed for this purpose...
and was immediately hooked.
Schreder immediately bought a Bowlus Baby Albatross, and later a Schweizer SGS 1-23
Schweizer SGS 1-23
The Schweizer SGS 1-23 is a United States Open and Standard Class, single-seat, mid-wing glider built by Schweizer Aircraft of Elmira, New York....
. The 1-23 was damaged on Schreder's first flight in it when it was drawn into a thunderstorm and pelted with golfball-sized hailstones. After a week of hasty repairs, Schreder flew this ship to a second-place finish in the 1955 National Championships in Grand Prairie, Texas
Grand Prairie, Texas
Grand Prairie is a city in Dallas, Ellis, and Tarrant counties in the U.S. state of Texas and is a part of the Mid-Cities region in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Grand Prairie is a suburb of both Dallas and Fort Worth and had a population of 175,396 at the 2010 census.- History :The city of...
.
In 1956, Schreder built the HP-7 and flew it to a fourth-place finish in that year's US National Championship contest. The HP-7 was quickly followed by the HP-8, in which Schreder flew to victory in the 1958 US Nationals in Bishop, California
Bishop, California
Bishop is a city in Inyo County, California, United States. Though Bishop is the only city and the largest populated place in Inyo County, the county seat is Independence. Bishop is located near the northern end of the Owens Valley, at an elevation of 4147 feet . The population was 3,879 at the...
. Schreder also used his HP-8 to establish speed records over 100, 200, and 300 km courses.
Successful designs
After the HP-9, Schreder went on to develop the HP-10, his first attempt at developing a gliderGlider (sailplane)
A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the sport of gliding. Some gliders, known as motor gliders are used for gliding and soaring as well, but have engines which can, in some cases, be used for take-off or for extending a flight...
specifically for kit manufacture and construction by sailplane homebuilders. This project was handed off to Heliosoar, a company founded by Stephen DuPont to manufacture sailplane kits.
Schreder immediately started on the HP-11, completing the prototype in time to fly it to a third-place finish in the 1963 World Soaring Championships in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. Upon returning to the States, Schreder refined the design slightly, added retractable landing gear, and offered it in kit form as the HP-11A.
Over the next few years, Schreder leapfrogged through the HP-series by successively developing new wings and then new fuselages for his glider designs. During this time Schreder also formalized his glider kit business, incorporating under the name Bryan Aircraft, Inc.
In 1966 Schreder flew his new HP-14 to victory in the US National Championships in Reno, Nevada, and created strong demand for HP-14 kits. This was his third national championship, having also won in 1958 and 1960.
Schreder's next design, the HP-15
Schreder HP-15
-References:*...
, was somewhat disappointing. Its high-aspect-ratio wing gave it good glider performance at high speed, but yielded too high a sink rate while at thermalling speed.
Building new wings for the HP-15 fuselage produced the HP-16. These new 15-meter wings were Schreder's first large foray into an innovative construction method featuring closely spaced PVC foam
Polyvinyl chloride
Polyvinyl chloride, commonly abbreviated PVC, is a thermoplastic polymer. It is a vinyl polymer constructed of repeating vinyl groups having one hydrogen replaced by chloride. Polyvinyl chloride is the third most widely produced plastic, after polyethylene and polypropylene. PVC is widely used in...
ribs (usually on 4" centers) bonded to an aluminum wing spar, to which was bonded a thin aluminum skin. The closely spaced ribs, combined with similarly-spaced foam interstitials, resulted in a cellular structure that yields great strength and stiffness with low weight. The HP-16 wing spars were made in inboard and outboard sections, each 12 feet (3.66 m) long, and each machined to an I-beam cross-section from billets of solid 7075-T6 aluminum and then spliced together to yield a 7.5m wing panel spar. The machining of these aluminum I beams would have been cost-prohibitive under normal circumstances, but was accomplished as something of a personal challenge by Schreder's friend John Mazur at his shop in Long Island, New York.
Following the HP-16, Schreder set to work on the RS-15
Schreder RS-15
|-See also:-References:**...
, which combined the HP-16 wings and a new pod-and-boom fuselage. This ship was the only Schreder sailplane design to be named outside the HP nomenclature. The RS stood for Richard Schreder, and the 15 for its fifteen meters of span.
With his following design, the HP-17, Schreder developed a new, more cost-effective method for making wing spars. These spars featured a rectangular box section consisting of machined C-channels for the upper and lower caps, joined by shear web panels riveted to the flanges of the spar cap channels. These channels were again manufactured by Mazur, and were carefully made so that the floor of the channel tapers in thickness from 3/8" at the root to 1/16" at the tip.
It is not known whether the HP-17 actually flew, but the wing spars that Schreder developed for it found good use on Schreder's next and most popular kit sailplane, the HP-18
Schreder HP-18
|-References:**R Johnson, A Flight Test Evaluation of the HP-18W Sailplane, Soaring, July 2003-External links:*...
.
First flown in 1974, the HP-18 was available in kit form in 1975, and in 1976 was featured in a series of six articles in Soaring Magazine
Soaring (magazine)
SOARING is a magazine published monthly as a membership benefit of the Soaring Society of America. The magazine's article topics include safety issues and accounts of individual gliding accomplishments....
that described every detail of its construction. In the spirit of the Popular Mechanics article from which Schreder built his first glider at age 9, the Soaring articles reproduced the HP-18 plans and assembly instructions in sufficient detail for a resourcful and mechanically-inclined individual to build the aircraft almost from scratch. However, most builders found it easier to purchase the HP-18 kit and its full-size plans from Bryan Aircraft.
Through the 1970s, homebuilt sailplanes including Schreder's kits fell somewhat into decline with the rise in performance and popularity of imported European composite ships. Although the HP-18 was his most popular offering, it was also the last of Schreder's kit sailplanes. After the HP-18, Schreder tried his hand at manufacturing carbon-fiber composite wing spars, and abandoned it as too troublesome after making the one set, which was used by Henry Preiss
Henry Preiss
Henry Preiss is a sailplane designer. He was a longtime friend and neighbor of Richard Schreder and they worked together to develop and build several examples each of the RHJ-7 and RHJ-8 two-seat sailplanes, and also the RHJ-9 and RHJ-10...
to complete the one-off HP-19.
Schreder's HP-20 combined the HP-19 fuselage with an innovative new wing spar consisting of leaves of aluminum laminated and bonded together under pressure. The HP-21 was intended to be a variable-geometry self-launching sailplane based on the RS-15 fuselage and featuring retractable sailcloth wing extensions along the inboard trailing edges of its constant-chord wing, but was abandoned before completion. The HP-22 was to be a 2-seat amphibious sailplane, again self-launching, but was abandoned after the wings and most of the fuselage hull were completed.
Later years
In the period following the HP-18's heyday, Schreder also spent a great deal of time attempting to develop a lightweight jet engineJet engine
A jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...
for small aircraft. Schreder envisioned such a powerplant as being ideal for self-launcing sailplanes. His first attempts featured pulsejet engines with their bodies contained within the blades of a propeller, and exhausting through nozzles deflected 90 degrees so as to cause the propeller to spin. Though some success was attained, Schreder found difficulty in containing the internal pressures so as to prevent the engine bodies from reverting to round cross-section. Also, these engines were quite loud and not very fuel-efficient.
Schreder died in 2002 from complications of diabetes.
See also
- Homebuilt aircraftHomebuilt aircraftAlso known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, homebuilt aircraft are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch," from plans, or from assembly kits.-Overview:...