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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Dr. James D. Gibson

Albert Snyder learned to fly in 1940, when he was 19 years old, at Bader Field in Atlantic City, NJ under a government sponsored program. He obtained his commercial license and instructor's rating at Boulevard Airport in Philadelphia, and got his instrument rating at DuPont Field in Wilmington, DE.

During World War II he served as a flight instructor for the Army Air Corps Training Command at Bennettsville, SC for 18 months. After leaving the Training Command, Al was inducted into the Army Air Corps as a flight officer in the Ferry Command. After receiving pursuit training in Brownsville, Texas and multi-engine training in Arkansas, he ferried Curtis P-40s from Buffalo, NY to San Francisco, CA, North American P-51s from Glendale, CA to Newark, NJ, and Bell P-63s from Niagara, NY to Fairbanks, AK. During the last six months of the war, Al flew C-46s from Sookerating, India over "the hump" into China.

After the war, Al founded Snyder Aviation to teach flying to returning GIs. From 1950 to 1951 he flew chartered flights. Then he founded Skycraft Corporation, which initially specialized in fabric-to-metal conversions for light aircraft. Today, Skycraft provides services and performance upgrades for the Piper Cherokee series of airplanes.