Richard Schreder

[1] 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.

While in the Navy, Schreder was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for the sinking of the German submarine U-158 off Bermuda on 30 June 1942 while commanding a Martin PBM Mariner.

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.

After a week of hasty repairs, Schreder flew this ship to a second-place finish in the 1955 National Championships in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Schreder immediately started on the HP-11, completing the prototype in time to fly it to a third-place finish in the 1963 World Gliding Championships in Junín, 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.

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 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.

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.

[6][7][8] In the period following the HP-18's heyday, Schreder also spent a great deal of time attempting to develop a lightweight jet engine for small aircraft.

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.