James Everett Lipp (July 3, 1910 – August 13, 1993)[1] was an American aerospace engineer.
He attended California Institute of Technology (MS, 1934; PhD, 1935) and began his career at the Douglas Aircraft Company, staying there until 1948.
[2] He then joined the missile division at the newly created Project RAND as one of the first four full-time employees, tasked by then Brigadier General Curtis LeMay to figure out how to launch orbiting satellites from a spaceship.
[3] Lipp would later become the head of the aerospace division at RAND and subsequently, corporate director of development planning at Lockheed Corporation.
[4] His recommendations to the Air Force in February 1947 helped contribute to the creation of the US civil and military satellite program during the Cold War.