Alexander P. de Seversky and the Quest for Air Power

4. The Russian Test Pilot and Consultant in America

49 4 The Russian Test Pilot and Consultant in America For nearly three years, Alexander P. de Seversky kept one eye on Russia in hopes a Communist collapse would allow him to go home and the other eye on the sky in hopes he could find an aviation position that would reward him financially and release his inventive talents. By the time he and his mother, Vera, reached the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in April 1918, he already knew that the Russian Naval Aviation Mission had been disbanded. More than likely, this unhappy piece of news had been given to him in Tokyo by Attaché Doudoroff, who regularly communicated with the Russian Embassy inWashington,D.C.Russiandiplomatsinbothcapitalssharedthechallenging problem of representing a government that no longer existed. Regardless, the mission’s demise is easy to understand. During Sasha and Vera’s hazardous journey across Siberia, on the evening of March 15, 1918, a Congress of Soviets ratified the harsh Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.1 From the Russian Embassy to the War Department A minor fallout from the treaty left the Naval Aviation Mission dangling without a purpose. Like many Russian officers who were also members of the nobility, de Seversky rejected the treaty and continued to support the war. Thus, when he was interviewed in San Francisco on April 21, he speculated that he might find a wartime role in the United States by joining a squadron, training pilots, or inspecting aircraft. The interview made clear that when Sasha and Vera left San Francisco by train for Washington, de Seversky hoped the nation’s capital would be a good starting point to find 50 The Russian Test Pilot and Consultant in America a useful aviation post. He would not be disappointed. Ambassador Boris Bakhmetev and the Russian Embassy assisted the lieutenant commander in his transition to war service for the United States. He received appointment as deputy naval attaché for aviation. It was clear, however, that embassy resources were limited and his appointment was temporary.2 The attaché post, however, automatically gave de Seversky entrée to American military circles in the U.S. War Department (now, Department of Defense). He took several additional steps to improve his opportunities for employment outside the embassy. Later that spring, he joined the Voluntary Association of Russian Army and Navy Officers. The association provided “[m]utual moral and material self-support among its members”; its purpose was to help “Russia in her great struggle against the coalition of the Central Empires and against Bolshevism in all its forms.” Naturally, most members served with the U.S. military or worked as consultants or engineers for war-related industries. In anticipation of interviewing with Americans, de Seversky received advice from association members early in the summer and prepared translated, notarized copies of official documents that certified his military career in Russia as an ace pilot, aircraft inspector, and aeronautical inventor.3 During the summer, de Seversky established contacts with staff members of the U.S. Army Air Service, great-grandfather to the current air force. He reached a point where he could submit documents and a formal request for a military appointment to Brig. Gen. William L. Kenly, director of the Division of Military Aeronautics, who reported directly to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker. Someone on Kenly’s staff actually reviewed de Seversky’s paperwork carefully. Although they rejected the Russian’s initial request for combat flight duty, staff members recognized that de Seversky could make an important contribution to America’s war effort as an inspector, consulting engineer, and test pilot for U.S.-manufactured war planes. General Kenly approved the naval attaché for assignment to the War Department’s Bureau of Aircraft Production at the Buffalo District Office, New York.4 In midsummer 1918 de Seversky and his mother moved to Buffalo, where he joined a small, intrepid group of test pilots. Much of de Seversky’s time was centered on the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. The North Elmwood Plant of that war-driven, expanded company worked to fulfill a contract to build a thousand Scout Experimental 5s. By the time the German Armistice was signed, ending the war on November 11, 5,125 S.E. 5s had been 51 The Russian Test Pilot and Consultant in America built among five companies in the United Kingdom and France. Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company added only one more to the...