SCHOLARSHIP IN HONOR OF GERHARD NEUMANN Gerhard Neumann

orn in 1917 and educated at Mittweida’s INGE- with the development of America’s only nuclear aircraft NIEURSCHULE in Germany, Gerhard Neu- engine. mann flew to China in 1939 to maintain Ger- Bman military equipment for the Chinese Nationalist During 1953, Neumann led the development of the Air Force. After internment by the British as an “enemy prototype of the famed J79 jet engine of which over alien” at the start of World War II in Hong Kong, he was 18,000 were built. He became General Manager of the helped to slip into Free China by an American vice pres- Jet Engine Department in Cincinnati, Ohio (1955), ident of Pan American Airways in 1940. He led a Chi- the Small Department in Lynn, Mass nese truck convoy over the rugged Burma Road, start- (1958), and the Flight Propulsion Division (1961). Neu- ed his own auto and truck repair shop in Yunnan, and mann was elected a Corporate Vice President in 1963 joined ’s original , an and became the Group Executive of the Aircraft Engine of the Chinese Air Force, as Business Group in 1968. engineering specialist on December 7, 1941. After having led and dramatically enlarged General Following disbandment of the AVG in 1942, Neumann Electric’s Jet engine business for over seventeen years enlisted (even though he had never been to the United (military, commercial, marine and industrial) he re- States) in the Army Air Corps following special permis- tired at the end of 1979. sion from the U.S. Secretary of War. That same year, he put into first-class flying condition a crashed Japanese Eight patents have been awarded to Neumann, and he Zero fighter plane, the first to fall into Allied hands. In is the recipient of America’s three top aviation awards: recognition of this important work and his activities as The (1958) agent with the OSS (military intelligence) Master Ser- The Goddard Award (1970) geant Neumann was made a citizen of the United States The Daniel Guggenheim Medal (1979) by a Special Act of Congress. Neumann is a member of the National Academy of En- After discharge from the Air Force in 1945, he worked gineering; an Honorary Member of the Faculty of the as an automobile mechanic in California, the joined Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington, Douglas Aircraft Research and Development Laborato- D.C.; a Knight of the French Legion of Honor (1977); ries in December 1945. He returned to China to work an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Astro- for General Chennault’s new civilian airline in Shanghai. nautics and Aeronautics (1978); a recipient of the Inter- The Chinese Communists’ advance on the mainland of national lnstitute’s Golden Door Award(1981); a recip- China initiated Neumann’s unprecedented 10,000-mile ient of a Doctor of Humane Letters Honorary Degree Jeep trip across Asia in the winter of 1947/48, accom- (1982); and a member of the Hall of Fame of General panied by his American wife and their Airedale terrier. Electric’s EPCOT Center of the Walt Disney World at Orlando, Florida (1983). Neumann joined ’s fledgling Aircraft Gas Turbine Division in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1948 Gerhard Neumann passed away in 1997. However, he where he developed the Variable Stator Compres- is still with us in spirit ! sor system which is now standard in most jet engines around the world. In 1951, he became closely associated The Falcon Foundation is a 501(c)(3), non-profit foundation. Its purpose is to provide scholarships to College or Preparatory Schools for motivated young people seeking admission to USAFA and a career in the Air Force.

Although it is a separate organization, the Falcon Foundation works closely with USAFA.