He remained with Lockheed in progressively higher positions through World War II when he was the company's director of materiel.
[3][4] The F-111 program suffered from safety concerns and the United States Navy cancelled its orders for F-111B's in 1968.
That figure was challenged by associates of Crown, who had bought back shares in the company at depressed prices and regained a board seat.
In 1971, Lewis was nominated as the first CEO of Amtrak, taking the reins of the passenger rail operations of the major railroads.
Although the initial year of Amtrak was troubled as the company ran out of funds and had little left over for capital expenditure, by the end of 1972, passenger traffic was up 11% and revenues were up.