- Gerhard Neumann
Gerhard Neumann (
October 8 ,1917 –November 2 ,1997 ) was a German aviation engineer.Childhood
Neumann was born in
Frankfurt (Oder) in the PrussianProvince of Brandenburg . His parents Siegfried and Frieda were non-practicing "Jewish Germans ".As a teenager, Neumann apprenticed under the master auto mechanic Meister Schroth, who followed the traditional Prussian lifestyle of "First the work, then the pleasure."
In 1935, Neumann entered the well-regarded technical college Ingenieurschule Mittweida and earned very high grades. With other students from the college, he learned to construct and pilot a one-person glider. His experience as an engine mechanic, an aircraft designer, and as a practical engineer would prove very useful in his career.
Off to China
The winds of war were growing in
Nazi Germany , and alliances were murky and shifting. The German colonies in China were threatened. Neumann had heard that Chinese GeneralissimoChiang Kai-shek needed engineers to fight the Japanese invaders. Neumann decided to leave his family and embark on a long journey to the British colony of Hong Kong in May 1939. But upon arriving in Hong Kong, he found that the company for which he was to work for had disappeared. Fortunately, his skills as an auto mechanic were in great demand.A few months later, on
1 September 1939 , Germany invaded Poland. On3 September , theUnited Kingdom declared war on Germany, and all Germans in Hong Kong were rounded up and interned inLa Salle College , Kowloon, a Christian Brothers High School for boys. Neumann was interned in the school together with some 100 Germans for several months. The British in Hong Kong considered any German citizen a potential "fifth column" and revoked his passport. No embassy would talk to him.Luckily, Neumann had a chance meeting with W. Langhorne Bond of the Chinese National Aviation Corporation. The company arranged for Neumann to enter China without a passport. He flew to
Kunming , capital of the remoteYunnan province, and there he contacted the Chinese Air Force. Soon after he met ColonelClaire Lee Chennault , who had established the Chinese Air Force withMadame Chiang Kai-shek .As the war with Japan progressed, the Chinese Air Force became the
American Volunteer Group , nicknamed the "Flying Tigers ." Neumann helped the effort against the Japanese in many important ways. He led dangerous supply convoys, he performed all types of mechanical repairs onP-40 aircraft, he translated to and from Chinese, he assembled a working enemy Zero from crash parts to assess its flight characteristics, and he even directed bombing attacks from the ground while disguised as a Chinesecoolie .Eventually Neumann was dispatched to
Washington, D.C. , where he met Clarice, who would later become his wife. Yet for all of Neumann's heroism in China, as a German he was still considered an enemy combatant. It took an act of theUnited States Congress to correct this. After the war, he was finally permitted to work for Douglas Aircraft Research.Return to China
In late 1946, Chennault offered Neumann an engineering position with Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Airline, a new airline Chennault was forming using war-surplus
C-46 transports. Neumann accepted, and on their way to China he and Clarice were married.In the year that followed, the Chinese Communist army was taking over China. The Neumanns had no choice but to attempt to return to the United States. They chose an unusual route. Instead of flying or sailing across the Pacific, Clarice suggested that they drive over the Asian continent towards North Africa. Thus began their incredible and dangerous journey to Tel Aviv. Most border crossings were dangerous, because by 1948 most countries in Asia were undergoing political turmoil. Finally, after a journey of many thousands of miles on poor roads by Jeep, they were able to conventionally return to
New York City .Jet engine innovator
In March 1948, Neumann began work as an engineer for the
General Electric Aircraft Gas Turbine Division, located inLynn, Massachusetts . There he made many innovations in jet engine design, most famously the "variable stator" that fine-tunes air compression at the inlet. His J79 jet engine enabled aircraft such as theF-104 to reach air speeds ofMach 2 . Yet even as a Vice President of General Electric, he piloted various jet fighters during the 1960s to personally understand the engines' performance.A major success for GE was his guiding the design and development of the huge high-bypass
turbofan jet engines (or simply called "fanjets") that now power the largest commercial aircraft.Retirement
Neumann retired from GE on
January 1 ,1980 , after 32 years of service. He remained active in retirement, until he developedleukemia and died onNovember 2 ,1997 .The
Gerhard Neumann Museum [ [http://www.f-104.de Gerhard Neumann Museum ] ] inNiederalteich ,Bavaria , honors his contributions to aviation.His autobiography "Herman the German: Just Lucky I Guess" [cite book |last=Neumann |first=Gerhard |title=Herman the German: Just Lucky I Guess |publisher=Author House |date=Dec 13, 2005 |id=ISBN 1-4184-7925-X] chronicles his life.
References
External links
[http://www.f-104.de/ Gerhard Neumann Museum]
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