Orval and Wilbur Wright (owned a bike shop) - 1903 - Did not invent flight, but did the first perfection and their big contributions were control methods, and formal engineering design methods applied to the endeavour including building a wind tunnel and testing prototypes. They did real research, published results, even spoke at engineering conferences.
Howard Hughes with Lockheed (was not an aeronautical engineer) - 1930's - he was the pilot, financier and front man, not the engineer who did the designs. He hired engineers and designers to build his products.
Henry Timken inventor of the taper roller bearing ( wagon builder) - 1800's - Co invented by Heizenlman who did appear to have a formal training.
Gottlieb Daimler Inventor of the Motorcycle and Automobile (was a gunsmith) - 1800's (University of Stuttgart, among others. He had a lot of formal education)
You may want to find some examples from at least the last 25 years. The world is a much different place. Most of the "simple" advances in science are long past. It used to be that scientists made their big discoveries early in their career (20's, 30's). Now the big discoveries are being made in their 40's as it takes that long to learn everything else so you can build on it and not recreate it.