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Field, Dayton, Ohio, where he was commissioned as Major. From November, 1918 through January, 1919 he tested the new Loening M-8 monoplane with 300 H.P. Hisso engine and did some outstanding flying with this plane. In altitude speed tests he flew 146 M.P.H. at 21,000 feet, then on January 18, 1919 he attained an altitude of 19,500 feet with two passengers. 

That summer Schroeder supervised the installation of a supercharged Liberty-12 engine in a Lepere biplane for special altitude tests. On August 2d he and Lt. George W. Elfrey flew this plane at 137 M.P.H. at 18,400 feet. Later that month Schroeder won the New York-to-Toronto Race, flying a Vought VE-7 plane. On September 6th he and Lt. Elfrey set a new 2-man altitude record of 29,000 feet with the Liberty-Lepere plane. On September 24th they exceeded this mark by flying to 31,800 feet, then on October 4th they broke their record again by flying to 33,335 feet.

On February 27, 1920 While flying solo and trying to reach 40,000 Schroeder narrowly escaped with his life when he ran out of oxygen at 36,020 feet, lost consciousness and the plane fell out of control to about 2,000 feet when he recovered enough to make a landing. When reached he was in a como [[coma]], his eyes frozen wide open, and serious heart damage resulted from which he never fully recovered. 

While at McCook Field Schroeder was active in the initiation of parachute flares, landing lights, fuel flow meters, free-type parachute packs, supercharging, controllable pitch propellers and flight instrumentation. He organized speed trials at the 30,000 ft. levels to determine the possibility of high altitude distance flying and envisioned the need for supercharging and pressurized cabins. During 1919 he also devised the first dummy "black box", a container with all flight instruments to continuously record all test results in flight automatically, and developed flight performance test methods that remained in use for many years. 

Schroeder accepted a commission as Reserve Officer in 1921 and left active service to organize the Aviation Department of Underwriters Laboratory in Chicago to register pilots and aircraft in the United States, which continued until the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce took over this work.

In May, 1925 Schroeder joined the Ford Motor Company where he assisted in 

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