Lanphier, Thomas G
Person · USA
Original archive entry. The text, images and links below are kept as they were written.
Credit: NASA
American manager, as pilot in WW2, one of the group that shot down Yamamoto in 1943. Secretary of the Air Force, 1949-1950; VP at Convair,1951-1960, at Raytheon from 1962.
Lanphier graduated from Stanford. He served with the Army Air Force in World War II, ending the war as a fighter ace after shooting down nine Japanese aircraft over the south Pacific. He was one of the group that shot down Admiral Yamamoto in 1943. After the war he was a special assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force, 1949-1950; then a Vice President of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft, 1951-1960; then President of Fairbanks, Morse, and Company, 1960-1962; before becoming Vice President for Corporate Planning of Raytheon in 1962.