Barker was a midget race car driver, and also worked at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank, Calif. Using the technical knowledge he gained at the aircraft plant, Barker liked to tinker with his race car engines, and many of his modifications are still being used today.
In the late 1940s, Barker came up with a design for a new engine, called the "Barker Engine."
On Nov. 11, 1951, Barker was a passenger on a small private plane that took off in bad weather from Brackett Field airport in Pomona, Calif., heading for San Mateo, Calif., where fellow passenger and race car driver Ronald L. "Mack" Hellings was scheduled to race at the Bay Meadows track. The other occupants of the plane were photographer George Lee Harvey Jr.; and the pilot, Robert Harris, a supervisor at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank, Calif.
The wreckage of the plane and the bodies of the four men were found on Nov. 15, at the 4,000-foot level in the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, Calif.
Hellings was buried next to Barker.
Barker was a midget race car driver, and also worked at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank, Calif. Using the technical knowledge he gained at the aircraft plant, Barker liked to tinker with his race car engines, and many of his modifications are still being used today.
In the late 1940s, Barker came up with a design for a new engine, called the "Barker Engine."
On Nov. 11, 1951, Barker was a passenger on a small private plane that took off in bad weather from Brackett Field airport in Pomona, Calif., heading for San Mateo, Calif., where fellow passenger and race car driver Ronald L. "Mack" Hellings was scheduled to race at the Bay Meadows track. The other occupants of the plane were photographer George Lee Harvey Jr.; and the pilot, Robert Harris, a supervisor at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank, Calif.
The wreckage of the plane and the bodies of the four men were found on Nov. 15, at the 4,000-foot level in the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, Calif.
Hellings was buried next to Barker.
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