During the Cold War Era of the 1960s through the 1980s, military test pilots were an integral part of our country's defense effort against communism. These brave men and women risked their lives on every flight and a northern Kentucky man was a big part of it all.

There are heroes among us every single day. They may not be easy to spot, but they're here. Take Ed Schneider from Boone County. To look at him, most might see a man enjoying the quiet life of retirement but to know his story is to know a true aviation hero.

"Come on into the office and let me show you some of this memorabilia. If you are in the flying game for 35 years you pile up a lot of stuff."

Schneider spent the first 15 years of his military career as a naval aviator and test pilot, but in 1983 he went to work for NASA.

"We did a lot of work on what we referred to as flight research projects and that primarily involved taking an existing airplane, modifying it in some way and doing an experiment with it."

By 1998, Schneider was Chief Test Pilot at the Dryden Flight Research Center in California. He and his team pushed their machines to the edge and beyond while tackling some of the agency's biggest experiments. One of those was as project leader for the SR-71 "Blackbird", a high altitude, high speed reconnaissance aircraft synonymous with the Cold War.

"The airplane was a real performer, it was built to do one thing and that was to go real fast, real high. Three times the speed of sound at eighty thousand feet and it did it, every time"

"There are only a handful of occupations where doing your job can literally mean life or death, but Ed Schneider each test flight was just day at the office"

"You go out and you explore without any preconceived notions and you take the data in. And you also have one part of your mind that is constantly going to be dealing with the unexpected so we trained for that as much as we can and you just go out and do it"

Schneider retired from NASA having logged flight time in 84 different models of aircraft. The Campbell County native's induction into the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame last month was special to him.

"To have the recognition from your state for doing things at a very high level and to be grouped with a really eclectic mix of people is so special."

It was a fitting honor for a man that definitely had "the right stuff".