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Days later, United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) officials testified before Congress that their company had provided Germany with plane engines and other minor parts. The Washington Post reported that UAC officials claimed they believed the “equipment sold to Germany was delivered in belief it would be used for commercial purposes.”⁴²²

Other UAC officials testified that “approval of United States Government officials was in every case obtained”⁴²³ prior to the shipments to Germany. They believed that the shipments were not in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.⁴²⁴

The German government responded to the investigation and hearings. The [Fascist] authorities claimed that all purchases were for commercial purposes and were made with the approval of the United States government. Because the parts purchases were supposedly for commercial activities, Berlin stressed the Treaty of Versailles did not prohibit such use—only military use.⁴²⁵

Germany did have ties to aerial armament manufacturers and military technology in the United States. Throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s, German military officers and other officials had paid repeated visits to air corps flight schools and aerial engineering schools and industries in the United States. Such officials had opportunities to fly aircraft and study manuals on military aircraft.⁴²⁶

Wilhelm Deist has noted that between January 1934 and July 1935 German military aircraft “output [increased] fourfold in a relatively short time.”⁴²⁷ Germany’s connections to foreign military industries and armament manufacturers contributed to the increase. The nature of such foreign visits indicated, despite Germany’s claims, that they were for the purpose of creating and building an air force. If all the purchases had been for “commercial use,” German officials would not have visited military flight schools and industries.

Following the uproar over the German purchase of aircraft parts, according to The New York Times, Hitler sent a letter to a London newspaper reiterating again that “the sincere desire of Germany [is] for peaceful relations with all its neighbors.”⁴²⁸ The article concluded that Hitler’s letter did nothing to combat Britain’s anti-German sentiments and fear. Most British citizens believed their country was preparing for war against Germany.⁴²⁹

Quoting Gerard Colby’s Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain, chapter 10:

Other American companies had also done business with the [Third Reich]. United Aircraft Corporation, for example, sold twenty-nine airplane engines to Hitler in 1933, increasing their German business from $6,000 in 1932 to $272,000; by 1934 the figure was $1,445,000. Curtis Wright, Douglas Aircraft, and Sperry Gyroscope all provided airplane equipment easily adaptable to wartime use.¹³¹