The U.S. Air Force officially credits him with four aerial victories during the war,[1] although other sources claim he had five,[2][3] and thus was a flying ace.

He was commissioned on March 9, 1918,[4] and was one of the American pilots forwarded to the Royal Flying Corps for advanced training and combat seasoning.

Four days later, he destroyed two Fokker D.VII in a late afternoon dogfight, but was also wounded and shot down, most probably by Leutnant Hermann Frommherz.

Tipton was one of the founding members of the 104th Observation Squadron, the original unit of the Maryland Air National Guard (MDANG).

[4] By the time Maryland National Guard was mobilized for World War II, Tipton had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

[4] He was killed on December 12, 1945, when the P-47N he was piloting crashed near Adena, Ohio, as he was flying home to be released from active duty.

The airfield was transferred to civilian control in 1995 and following a period of environmental remediation, became active as Tipton Airport in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.