Born and raised in Germany, he went to China shortly before World War II where he became an aircraft mechanic for the United States Army Air Forces.
[2] As a teenager, Neumann apprenticed under a master auto mechanic, surnamed Schroth, who followed the traditional Prussian lifestyle of "First the work, then the pleasure.
In late 1938, Neumann saw a bulletin board posting at Mittweida saying that Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek needed engineers in his fight against Japanese invaders.
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,[6] a Christian Brothers High School for boys.
As the war with Japan progressed, the Chinese Air Force became the American Volunteer Group (AVG), nicknamed the "Flying Tigers.
Eventually Neumann was dispatched to Washington, D.C. to brief William Donovan, head of the OSS, where he met his future wife Clarice.
[14] Thus began their incredible and quite dangerous journey to the Mediterranean Sea, via Siam (now Thailand), Burma, India, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine.
Finally, after a journey of many thousands of miles on poor roads by Jeep, Neumann, Clarice and their dog Mr. Chips arrived in Tel Aviv during the first Arab-Israeli war and were able to travel conventionally to New York City.
In March 1948, Neumann began work as a test engineer for the General Electric Aircraft Gas Turbine Division, located in Lynn, Massachusetts.
[15] There he drove many innovations in jet engine design, which included promoting the variable stator compressor for the J79 jet engine which enabled aircraft such as the F-104 to reach speeds of Mach 2; The development team (Neumann, Neil Burgess, and Clarence L. Johnson of Lockheed) were awarded the Collier Trophy for 1958.
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 and military cargo aircraft.