ドイツ空軍きっての偵察パイロットおよび航空技師。ヘルマン・ゲーリングのもとで空軍の技術開発を担当した。戦時ドイツのトップ・テンに入る パイロットとして、戦争末期、シュペーア軍需・戦時生産相がグリーンランドに逃亡するための航空機のパイロットに指名された。ペーパークリップ作戦では、 アメリカ空軍のライト・フィールド空軍基地で1947-年から1977年まで働いた。

"By February 1944, Knemeyer had surprisingly never flown a German heavy bomber of any sort, until he got his turn to fly one of the Heinkel He 177B prototypes on 24 February at the Wiener Neustadt military airfield. His favorable opinion on the twin tail-equipped He 177 V102 aircraft's "excellent handling qualities" compelled him to recommend that the Heinkel firm place the He 177B design's priority above that of the Heinkel He 343 four-jet medium bomber design, which was still in its early stages.[7] Shortly after rising to his top-level technical appointment within the RLM, Knemeyer became close with old colleague, General Werner Baumbach.[8][9] Knemeyer was included on a Special Committee of top-ranking Luftwaffe administrators in November 1943 for the purpose of advocating broad adoption of and investment in the Me-262.[10] Aviation book authors J. Richard Smith and Eddie Creek credit Knemeyer and General Adolf Galland as the men responsible for Germany’s finally putting the Me 262A-1a jet fighter into mass production.[11] In 1944, the German hierarchy placed a renewed call for creative plans to reverse the now-inevitable defeat descending on Nazi Germany. Familiar with the newest technologies, Knemeyer conceived a plan to develop a long-range bomber that would drop a radioactive "dirty bomb" on New York City, in hopes of intimidating the United States out of the war. This idea was embraced and Knemeyer set up and personally supervised a competition between the three most promising technologies: Wernher von Braun’s Aggregat A-9 rocket missile and A-10 booster rocket; Eugen Sänger’s Silbervogel, and the Horten brothers' Horten Ho 229 turbojet-powered flying wing fighter. While this competition accelerated the progress of leading edge aviation technology, of these specified aerospace design projects, only one prototype example of the Ho 229 (the Versuchs-Zwei, or Ho 229 V2 second prototype) flew prior to the end of the war.[12]" - Siegfried Knemeyer.

ペーパー・クリップ作戦にあたっては……

"Knemeyer was arrested in the British Zone of Occupation and was interned in Münster and then at the Latimer prison camp. Knemeyer was part of the Operation Paperclip and in June 1948 he was awarded a permanent contract of employment with the United States Air Force, Air Material Command. His family was then able to join him in America. Knemeyer began with the United States War Department on 1 July 1947. As acknowledgement of his contributions, in 1966 he received the highest civilian award granted by the U.S. military, the U.S. Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award."- Siegfried Knemeyer.

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文献

• ジェイコブセン，アニー『ナチ科学者を獲得せよ：アメリカ極秘プロジェクトペーパークリップ作戦』加藤万里子訳、太田出版、2015年／ Jacobsen, Annie, 2014. Operation Paperclip: The secret intelligence program that bought Nazi sciencetists to America. New York: Little Brown.

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