Not only did
RJ Mitchell not have a degree Ghengis, he also designed small aeroplanes.
As "one of nature's engineers", Mitchell was in good company -
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a Member (but not a Fellow) of the Institute of Civil Engineers and was elected to the Royal Society at the early age of 26. Despite these honours, he never attended university and learned his engineering hands-on, working for his father's civil engineering business, straight after leaving school at the age of sixteen. The only degree he held was the Honourary Degree of Civil Laws, awarded him by the University of Oxford in 1857, two years before his death.
James Watt didn't go to university either and the only degree he held was also an honourary degree - from the University of Glasgow. James Watt learned the trade of mathematical instrument maker in Glasgow before setting up a business in London and entering into a partnership with Matthew Boulton, another ill-educated ex-apprentice.
George Stephenson held no degrees, not even honourary ones, though it was he who proposed the rules for the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and was elected its first president. The son of a colliery fireman, he learned to read and write at night school and followed his father into the colliery, eventually qualifying as an engineman - which is how he learned about engines.
A fine band of
Technicians that lot, eh? Makes you proud to be a technician, so it does.
{Blacksheep, IEng MRAes MIEE, & not a gentleman...
}