 Before graduating from the University of Detroit in 1939 with a BSc.degree in aeronautical engineering, Bikle's activity in the student chapter of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences (IAS), and the school gliding and flying clubs, led to flight instruction and a pilot's license from the C.A.A., the predecessor to the FAA.He later became a fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the successor to the IAS.