Memoir & Misadventures of a Mad Inventor - Tapa blanda

Young Robert Barley survives being struck by flaming rocket plane. Flaming hair, and a knot on the back of the head would have been enough to discourage most boys, but it only lit the fire under Robert's passion for inventing. Robert's first invention was a rocket plane. At the age of six, he borrowed one of his brother's bottle rockets, and glued it to the side of a toy balsa glider. The rocket plane functioned flawlessly, making a high speed loop, and hitting young Robert in the back of the head. Robert not only learned some painful facts about aeronautics that day, but also, the fine art of extinguishing a fire in one's hair! Having narrowly survived his deep diving experiment, and his electric worm extraction device, young Robert continued testing fate, by obtaining a private pilot's license, inventing a lightening powered x-ray machine, and a motorized wheelbarrow. Later, a sail powered bicycle, and his perilous first attempt at hitch-hiking nearly ended his innovative ambitions.

Robert, an Aerospace Mechanical Engineer, private pilot, and owner of two utility patents, reflects on the wacky inventions of his youth, misadventures, and their near disastrous consequences. Robert, has one son, and is now retired. Robert was born and raised in Clinton, Indiana. He studied aviation, and electronics at Indiana State University, spent three years in the Army Signal Corps, with one year of duty as a radio operator in Vietnam. Robert now resides in southern Alabama with his wife of 41 years, Kathleen.