Edward Vernon Rickenbacker (born Edward Rickenbacher, October 8, 1890 – July 23, 1973) was an American fighter pilot in World War I and a Medal of Honor recipient."Edward Vernon Rickenbacke r." Encyclopædia Britannica, July 19, 2022. With 26 aerial victories, he was the most successful and most decorated United States flying ace of the war.Robert Widener, "WWI Most Decorated", VFW Magazine, April 2017 He was also a racing driver, an automotive designer, and a long-time head of Eastern Air Lines.
Early life
Rickenbacker was born Edward Rickenbacher in Columbus, Ohio. He was the third of eight children born to German-speaking Swiss immigrants, Lizzie (née Liesl Basler) and Wilhelm Rickenbacher. Later in life, he changed the spelling of his last name to Rickenbacker and adopted a middle name, Vernon.
His father worked for breweries and street-paving crews and his mother Lizzie took in laundry to supplement the family income. In 1893, his father owned a construction company. With a loan from Lizzie's parents, the couple purchased a lot and built a small home at 1334 East Livingston Avenue, southeast of downtown at the edge of the city limits in 1893. The house lacked running water, indoor plumbing, and electricity. This is where Edd, as he was called by his parents, spent his childhood.Lewis, W. David, Eddie Rickenbacker: An American Hero in the Twentieth Century. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005, p. 1.
Growing up, Rickenbacker worked before and after school.Rickenbacker, Edward V., Rickenbacker: an Autobiography. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. p. 20. He helped in the garden where the family grew potatoes, cabbages, and turnips and cared for the family's chickens, goats, and pigs. He earned money by delivering papers, setting up pins at a bowling alley, and selling scavenged goods. He gave most of his earnings to his mother but spent some on Bull Durham tobacco, a habit he picked up from his older brother Bill.
As a child, Rickenbacker was accident-prone.Rickenbacker, Edward V., Rickenbacker: an Autobiography. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. p. 24. Before entering school, he toddled into an oncoming horse-drawn streetcar and fell into an open cistern. His brother rescued him from a passing coal car twice. Once, he ran back into his burning school building to retrieve his coat and nearly paid for it with his life. Sixty years later when producing his autobiography, he found significance in these close calls. He came to believe that God had repeatedly saved him for a higher purpose."When a Man Faces Death," pp. 16, 28. Eddie Rickenbacker papers, 1915–1972, Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Columbus, Ohio. and "Rickenbacker" (1967), p. 367.
Young Rickenbacker had an artistic side and enjoyed painting watercolors of animals, flowers, and scenery.Rickenbacker, Edward V., Rickenbacker: an Autobiography. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. p. 14. He tried to design a perpetual motion machine, but, his father berated him for wasting time on an invention with no purpose.Rickenbacker, Edward V., Rickenbacker: an Autobiography. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. p. 28. He was also "sort of the leader" of the Horsehead Gang, with whom he smoked, played hooky, and broke streetlamps.Life Story, vol. I, pp. 8, 15, 17. Eddie Rickenbacker papers, 1915–1972, Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Columbus, Ohio. With the Horsehead Gang, he constructed pushcarts that were a precursor to the Soapbox Derby. Once, the Horsehead Gang took a "roller coaster ride" in a quarry cart and his leg was run over and badly sliced. After the Wright brothers' first airplane flight, Rickenbacker tried to "fly" a bicycle outfitted with an umbrella off of his friend's barn roof.
The summer before Rickenbacker's fourteenth birthday, his father was injured in a brawl. After being hit in the head with a level, Rickenbacker's father was in a coma for almost six weeks before his death on August 26, 1904."Laborer's Skull Fractured by Two Blows with a Level," Columbus Evening Dispatch, July 18, 1904. His assailant was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to ten years in prison.Lewis, W. David. Eddie Rickenbacker: An American Hero in the Twentieth Century, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2005. p 15.
Career beginnings Though his older siblings Bill and Mary were working, Rickenbacker felt a responsibility to help replace his father's lost income. He dropped out of the seventh grade and went to work full-time, lying about his age to work around child labor laws. He worked eight different jobs during the next two years. While working at the Oscar Lear Automobile Company in 1905, he took an engineering course from the International Correspondence School. Chief engineer Lee Frayer took Rickenbacker under his wing, giving him more responsibility in the workshop.
Two months later, when it came time to compete in the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup race, Frayer brought Rickenbacker to New York as his riding mechanic. After two practice runs, their engine overheated and they failed to get to the starting line for their qualifying run.
Back in Columbus, Rickenbacker followed his mentor to the Columbus Buggy Company as a chief testing engineer, supervising upwards of a dozen men in his department. The sixteen-year-old Rickenbacker's hard work and mechanical acumen impressed Harvey S. Firestone, his new employer. Firestone chose Rickenbacker for special assignments, including troubleshooting in Atlantic City and demonstrating at the 1909 Chicago Automobile Show.
Later that year, Firestone sent Rickenbacker to Texas to figure out why the new Frayer-designed engines were overheating. Rickenbacker solved the problem and stayed on to head up Columbus Buggy's Dallas agency. At eighteen, he was the chief engineer, experimenter, demonstrator, mechanic, and salesman.Life Story, vol. I, p. 81, Eddie Rickenbacker papers, 1915–1972, Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Columbus, Ohio. During this time, he served as a chauffeur to the visiting William Jennings Bryan, getting his picture and his cars in the newspaper. He made three sales as a result. In March 1910, Firestone sent Rickenbacker to direct the Upper Midwest Agency out of Omaha. At nineteen, Rickenbacker was in charge of six men, covering sales, distribution, and maintenance of Firestone-Columbus automobiles in four states. He earned $125 per week ().
Automobile racing
To draw attention to his company's car, Rickenbacker entered a race in Red Oak, Iowa. He failed to finish in his first automobile race after crashing through an outer fence. That summer, Rickenbacker went on to win most of the dirt track races he entered, including five of six races at Omaha's Aksarben Festival in October. When reporting on races, newspapers misspelled his name as Reichenbaugh, Reichenbacher, or Reichenberger, before settling on Rickenbacker."Firestone Back in Race Meets Again," Daily Telegraph (Atlantic, Iowa), July 12, 1910: 1.Lewis, W. David. Eddie Rickenbacker: An American Hero in the Twentieth Century, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2005. p. 47."Fast Time at Motor Races." The Omaha Bee. October 3, 1910.
The following May, Lee Frayer invited his protégé to join him in another racing venture: the first ever Indianapolis 500. As relief driver, Rickenbacker replaced Frayer in the middle portion of the race, driving the majority of miles and helping his former boss take thirteenth place. The next year, he drove Frayer's Red Wing Special by himself but was forced out after with mechanical difficulties. Rickenbacker quit his sales job and went on the county fair circuit with a Flying Squadron team.
In October 1912, the American Automobile Association (AAA) cracked down on drivers known for flouting safety regulations. Rickenbacker was barred from the track for the next twelve months.Lewis, W. David. Eddie Rickenbacker: An American Hero in the Twentieth Century, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2005. pp. 59–60. He joined the automobile workshop of Frederick and August Duesenberg in Des Moines, Iowa. For the next year, he worked sixteen-hour days at $3 a day (), developing a Mason race car, named for Duesenberg's chief investor.
In July 1913, Rickenbacker received dispensation from AAA to compete in his hometown Columbus 200-mile race. Somehow, he kept his racing reinstatement through the rest of the season. He won three times and finished the season in 27th place on the AAA standings with 115 points.Rickenbacker, Edward V. Rickenbacker: an Autobiography. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. p. 75-78 Lewis, W. David. Eddie Rickenbacker: An American Hero in the Twentieth Century, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2005. pp. 60–63. In 1914, the Duesenberg team separated from their investor, Edward R. Mason. Winning the prize money became vital for Rickenbacker because he would be out of racing for the season if Duesenberg ran out of funds. With some hard driving, he won the Fourth of July race at Sioux City. A third-place finish by another Duesenberg driver brought in $12,500 () and ensured that the team would complete the season. Rickenbacker finished the year in sixth place in the AAA standings.Rickenbacker, Edward V. Rickenbacker: an Autobiography. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. p. 72-73.Lewis, W. David. Eddie Rickenbacker: An American Hero in the Twentieth Century, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2005. pp. 66-68
Rickenbacker was now a national racing figure, earning the nickname "Fast Eddie". One sportswriter called him "the most daring and...the most cautious driver in America today."Adamson, Hans Christian. "Eddie Rickenbacker." New York: Macmillan Company, 1946, p. 112. The top-ranked Peugeot team lured Rickenbacker away from Duesenberg at the start of 1915. However, a couple of bad outings caused him to abandon Peugeot and switch to the Maxwell team. Looking back decades later, Rickenbacker called this "the major mistake of my racing career".Rickenbacker, Edward V. Rickenbacker: an Autobiography. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. p. 78. Still, he finished the season ranked fifth among all racers, with three victories to his credit. In September 1915, Rickenbacker received financial backing from Indianapolis Speedway owner Carl Fisher and his partner, Fred Allison. They made Rickenbacker the leader of a new Presto-Lite team, giving him free rein over three drivers and four mechanics as they developed four Maxwell Special race cars.
In 1915, newspapers began spelling his name with a second "k" more frequently, with his active encouragement. He also decided his given name "looked a little plain" and adopted a middle initial, signing his name 26 times with different letters before settling upon "V."Rickenbacker, Edward V. Rickenbacker: an Autobiography. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. p. 66 The Hartford Courant referred to him as "Edward Victor Rickenbacher" after his win at Sheepshead Bay in 1916."Richenbacher Popular with Fans." Hartford Courant. May 28, 1916, p. Z10.