title: Raynold E. Acre
text: # Raynold E. Acre
  
  Raynold Edward Acre (1889–1966) was a member of the Early Birds of Aviation, a small group of pilots that flew before World War I.
  
  ## Biography
  
  He was born on July 16, 1889, in Auburn, New York, to David Acre and Anna Forgette.
  
  Acre's first flight was in a Montgomery tandem-wing glider replica at Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1909.
  
  He married Anne M. Schatz (1894-1967) in 1910 and they had a son, Harry Raymond Acre (1911–1984).
  
  In 1910 Acre was living in a tent outside the Hawthorne Race Track in Chicago, Illinois. Acre and Edward Andrews (aviator) worked on a 1905 glider built by John Joseph Montgomery, fitted with a 12 hp Bates engine. Victor Loughead and his half brother Allan Haines Loughead were licensed distributors of Montgomery gliders with Chicago auto dealer James E. Plew as a client. They also purchased a 30 hp Curtiss pusher which Acre was able to fly after Allen.
  
  In 1928 Acre was working with Air Associates Inc, an exclusive east coast distributor of Lockheed aircraft. Acre flew as a passenger in the 1928 National Air Tour demonstrating the new Lockheed Vega. Acre became vice president in 1941 following a rare wartime government seizure by Franklin D. Roosevelt during a C.I.O strike. Acre stayed in the position through World War II. He remained active as a general aviation pilot, owning and flying a Beechcraft Bonanza.
  
  He died on January 16, 1966, in Los Angeles, California.
  
  