Evening star., 1938-12-28

BY 1928 the lure of the great wealth
he heard existed in the United
States proved too much.
He arrived here in October, 1923,
and after a couple of brief jobs,
landed in the field that interested
him most-airplane mechanics. He
got a job with the Ireland Aircraft
Corp, at Roosevelt Field.
There he met LonkoWski.
Voss left Ireland Aircraft in jan
uary, 1881, and began drifting from
one aircraft plant to another. He
was getting reputation as crack
mechanic and machinist on air
plane construction. He worked for
the keystone Aircraft Corp, Bristol,
Pa; the Berliner & Joyce Aircraft
Corp, in Baltimore; the Kirkham
Aircraft Corp, Farmingdale, L. T.,
and wound up at Seversky on jan
uary 2, 1885.
Meanwhile be became married and
a citizen.
Photographs Given Eitel.
"I felt I should do it for my
fatherland." he told me. Il would
not do it for money. I despise men
who spy for money. They are swine.
I did it only for my fatherland,
Mr.. Turrou. I want you to believe
that"
OF course I don't. Where did he
get that $1,000 or $4,000 in the bank,
the cash for the new car, the money
for the expensive jaunts to Ger
many?
And what about this country, to
which you swore allegiance?" I
couldn't resist asking him, when he
prated so much about doing it all
for the fatherland.
He shrugged his shoulders. That
was his only answer.
Voss met Karl Eitel in a hotel
lobby three weeks later and handed
over photographs Of the IS airplanes
the Seversky Aircraft Corp. was
then building for the United States
Army, known az model BT.-8. He
explained the all-metal construction
to Eitel, the design of the wings,
fuselage, landing gear and landing
gear yokes.
Eitel said he didn't know if Nazi
spy headquarters was interested in
this model-it was merely a training
plane-but that he would turn over
the notes he took and the photo
graphs Voss gave him to Pheiffer.
Voss said he met Eitel five or six
times more, told him a few things
more about Seversky planes, and
pointed put to him that the landing
gear Jokes were bad on certain
modelS
A few months later a man ap-
peared at Voss' home in Floral Park
and introduced himself as Eitel's
successor. He said that his name
was Herbert Jaenichen, and that he,
too, was disguised as a steward on
the Bremen. He produced letter
from Pheiffer identifying him as a
Nazi spy operative, and a letter
from Eitel, requesting him to follow
through with Jaenichen.
Swings Into Action.
Voss says he doesn't know why
Eitel dropped out of the picture
but I know. Eitel was knocking
down"
With Jaenichen, Voss swung into
action. Three weeks after he met
him, Voss gave Jaenichen details of
II Army pursuit planes, known as
model P-35, which were being built
by Seversky.
Nazi spy headquarters showed
great interest in these. For months
Jaenichen pumped him each trip for
more details concerning these planes.
In June, 1887, Voss reported that
there was something wrong with the
model-that it failed to develop the
expected speed.
He drew sketches to show Jaeni-
chen and spy headquarters how the
landing gear could be folded into
the wings. He showed him how
each wing had five panels, instead
of the usual two. making it theo-
retically less vulnerable to anti
aircraft fire. He showed him how
the duralumin spars were set into
the wings.
Jaenichen showed extreme inter-
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