Boucher’s a skilled raconteur, and you can\u00a0picture the\u00a0twinkle in his eye as\u00a0he tells of his youthful resourcefulness –\u00a0an important trait\u00a0during wartime rations. With commercial fireworks unavailable, Boucher\u00a0developed his own –\u00a0a more highly explosive, less stable alternative.\u00a0Too young to buy beer, the undeterred Boucher built the equipment\u00a0to brew his own.\u00a0 At\u00a016, unbeknownst to his parents, he took flying lessons at nearby Windham Airport (then\u00a0the Willimantic Municipal Airport).\u00a0The entrepreneurial Boucher parlayed\u00a0his flying skills – acquired before he could legally drive –\u00a0into a business in which he\u00a0shuttled air passengers conducting sponsored research\u00a0at a government laboratory.<\/span><\/p>\n In 1980,\u00a0 Boucher left Hughes permanently and formed Leisure Electronics, a small toy and hobby manufacturing company. There, he\u00a0built and marketed a radio control electric model car that he conceived and developed five years earlier.\u00a0Toy distributors showed little interest at first,\u00a0but a few weeks after the first sales at a local toyshop, the car became a nationwide hit.\u00a0In 1988, Boucher scaled back his involvement in the company to perform engineering consulting work for other companies.<\/span><\/p>\n After retiring from his position of\u00a0chairman at United Californians for Tax Reform, Boucher applied his mathematical skills to analyze the Federal and California tax codes and forms.\u00a0 His work was instrumental in the complete rewrite of the California short tax form, removing many unnecessary restrictions and automating the form to execute mathematical calculations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"highres_124588452[1]\"](\"http:\/\/d45h139.public.uconn.edu\/sites\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/highres_1245884521.jpg\")
<\/a>Graduating from UConn with distinction, Boucher\u2019s good grades and drive earned him a full scholarship to Yale University where he received a master\u2019s degree in engineering.\u00a0From there, his love of aviation and Horace Greeley\u2019s invocation to \u201cGo West, young man,\u201d propelled him to California and Hughes Aircraft Company<\/a> where he embarked on a 25-year career. He went on from there\u00a0to start\u00a0two businesses.\u00a0The first\u00a0was <\/span>AstroFlight Sunrise<\/span><\/a>, which is\u00a0now celebrating its 40th anniversary. It developed an unmanned experimental electric aircraft technology, which was the first aircraft to fly on solar power.\u00a0Project Sunrise was funded by DARPA and administered by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation; the contract called for\u00a0a “proof of concept aircraft powered solely by incident sunlight on the wing surfaces.”<\/span><\/p>\n