Joseph A. Barkley, Jr. (1923-2005) was a Navy dive-bomber pilot in World War II, a test pilot for All American Engineering Company (AAE) for nearly three decades and a consultant and writer of technical manuals for much of the equipment he had night-tested.
A Wilmington native, he was graduated from PS. duPont High School in 1941 and attended the University of Delaware.
Joe Jr. (his father was a pilot in World War I) flew off aircraft carriers on U-boat patrol in the Atlantic and Pacific in "The Big One" and brought his skills and daring home to AAE in Delaware.
Much of his work was top secret:
• Piloting the first air-to-air recovery of a parachutist in tests over the AAE base at Georgetown.
• First pilot to be launched from the expeditionary "Turbo-Cat" land-based catapult.
• Developing a surface-to-air pickup and delivery system whereby a fixed-wing airplane, flying a tight circling pattern, lowers a line that, upon contacting the ground, stands virtually static.
• Proving the practical use of "hydro-skis" that enable land-based airplanes to land and take off on water for rescue of downed pilots.
• Training aircrews in the use of AAE-designed equipment for mid-air capture of film capsules returning from military satellites.
•Demonstration of a method for recovery of propulsion engines ejected from space shuttles.
Mr. Barkley retired from AAE in 1981 and the Naval Reserve in 1983 as a lieutenant commander. He had accumulated nearly 10,000 hours, all accident-free.
He and Dorothy, his wife of 36 years, moved to Willow Valley in Lancaster Pa., in 1995. He died in February 2005. Besides his wife, he is survived by son Joseph A. Barkley III of Florida, and daughter Susan J. Highfield of Quarryville, Pa.
