Gerhard Neumann

Gerhard Neumann (October 8, 1917 – November 2, 1997) was a German aviation engineer.

Childhood

Neumann was born in Frankfurt (Oder) in the Prussian Province 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 Generalissimo Chiang 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. On 3 September, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany, and all Germans in Hong Kong were rounded up and interned in La 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 remote Yunnan province, and there he contacted the Chinese Air Force. Soon after he met Colonel Claire Lee Chennault, who had established the Chinese Air Force with Madame 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 on P-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 Chinese coolie.

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 the United 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 in Lynn, 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 the F-104 to reach air speeds of Mach 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 developed leukemia and died on November 2, 1997.

The Gerhard Neumann Museum in Niederalteich, Bavaria, honors his contributions to aviation.

His autobiography "Herman the German: Just Lucky I Guess chronicles his life.

References

External links

Gerhard Neumann Museum