Thomas George Lanphier, Sr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thomas George Lanphier, Sr., was a Major in the US Army, and was Commanding Officer of Selfridge Field.
With Charles Lindbergh he was a partner in Bird Aircraft Corp. and T.A.T. He bought Manhattan's Phoenix Cereal Beverage Company and applied for a license to manufacture 3.2 beer under the brewery's old name of Flanagan-Nay Brewery Corp. Since 1925 the brewery has reputedly been run, with William Dwyer, by Owen Madden, who was in Sing Sing Prison, who in 1932 ordered an airplane from, and was instructed by Major Lanphier. In 1936 after retiring from the military, Thomas headed The Association for Legalizing American Lotteries. His son was Thomas George Lanphier, Jr.
[edit] Spirit of Saint Louis
On July 1, 1927 from Lambert Field, to Selfridge Field, Mt. Clemens, Michigan (Flew via Ft. Wayne, Inc.; Toledo, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.) "Major Lanphier, Commanding Officer of Selfridge Field, piloted the Spirit of St. Louis on one flight in the vicinity of the field"
[edit] References
- Time (magazine); Monday, March 22, 1926; "Up in Alaska on a snow-covered field just outside of Fairbanks, with its railroad and clustered wooden buildings, two Fokker monoplanes were finally assembled last week. Captain George H. Wilkins, leader of the U. S. aero expedition which is to fly over the Polar blindspot to Spitsbergen called to his aides. They were Major Thomas G. Lanphier and Lieutenant Carl B. Eielson, the pilots, and A. M. Smith. All was set for the first tests. But Captain Wilkins would not commence until the crowd of spectators-newspapermen, townsmen and women of Fairbanks-dispersed. He was afraid of killing someone. So they scattered and the propellers were turned over for the first time.
- Time (magazine); Monday, April 19, 1926; "The Fairbanks operators were, however, in constant touch with Wilkins' overland party under Explorer "Sandy" Smith. The latter had been obliged to leave his comrades encamped some 140 miles south of Point Barrow on the Colville River, while he and an aide mushed across the tundra to the nearest settlement. He had run out of food for the dogs. Soon, the encamped ones flashed, the animals would have to be shot. Wilkins, second-in-command, Major Lanphier, left behind in Fairbanks, at once rushed repairs on the damaged Fokker Detroiter to send aid. Meantime he worried and worried about Wilkins and Eielson."
- Time (magazine); Monday, June 26, 1933; Thomas George Lanphier
- Time (magazine); April 20, 1936; "The Association for Legalizing American Lotteries, on which the Post Office took its first and firmest action, is headed by Major Thomas George Lanphier, U. S. A., retired. Of proceeds from the sale of numbered applications for membership in the Association. Grand National Treasure Hunt keeps 50% for expenses and 25% 'for itself.' Harder to win than Golden Stakes, Grand National Treasure Hunt involves eight cartoons, lists 30 song titles under each one. Winners, picked by a jury of 'artists and song experts,' get prizes totaling $100,000."
- New York Times; February 6, 1937; page 4; "Lanphier was not in Spain. Major did not fly for loyalist forces as reported. In the late editions of The New York Times of January 16, 1937, and in the early editions of January 17, 1937 there appeared an item concerning the return of Eddie Schneider, aviator, from serving a month in the so-called Yankee Squadron with the Spanish Loyalists and Schneider's appearance at the Federal Building, where he was questioned by John F. Dailey Jr., Chief Assistant United States ..."
