Eric "Winkle" Brown

Captain Eric Melrose "Winkle" Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, FRAeS, RN is a former Royal Navy officer and test pilot who has flown more types of aircraft than anyone else in history. He is also the Fleet Air Arm’s most decorated pilot, and holds the world record for aircraft carrier landings.

Personal

Born on January 21, 1919, in Leith, he first flew when he was 18. He joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in 1939 as a Fleet Air Arm pilot serving in 802 Squadron.

Career

After World War II‚ Brown commanded the Enemy Aircraft Flight, an elite group of pilots who test-flew captured German aircraft. That experience makes Brown one of the few men qualified to compare both Allied and Axis "warbirds" as they actually flew during the war. He flight-tested 53 German aircraft, including the Me 163 rocket plane and the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet plane.

He helped interview many Germans after World War II, including Wernher von Braun and Hermann Goering, Willy Messerschmitt and Dr. Ernst Heinkel.

He was due to be the first supersonic pilot in the Miles M.52, but this fell through when the program was cancelled.

In 1945 he successfully, but raggedly flew a Sikorsky R-4B helicopter with instruction solely from reading a manual.

Brown is responsible for at least two important firsts in carrier aviation - the first carrier landing using an aircraft equipped with a tricycle undercarriage (Bell Airacrobra Mk 1 AH574) on the trials carrier HMS Pretoria Castle on April 4 1945, and the world's first landing of a jet aircraft on an aircraft carrier, landing the de Havilland Sea Vampire LZ551/G on the Royal Navy carrier HMS Ocean on December 3 1945. He also holds the world's record for the most carrier landings, 2,407.

In 1949 he test flew a modified strengthened and control-boosted de Havilland DH.108 after a fatal crash involving Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr. and discovered that in a M0.88 dive it suffered from a high-g pitch oscillation at several hertz (Hz). He believed that he survived the test flight partly because he was a shorter man - Geoffrey's body had suffered a broken neck possibly due to the violent oscillation.

Records

He flew aircraft from Britain, America, Germany, Italy and Japan, and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as holding the record for flying the greatest number of different aircraft. The official record is 487, but only includes basic types. For example Captain Brown flew several versions of the Spitfire and Seafire, and although these versions are very different they only appear once in the list.

Due to the special circumstances involved, he doesn't think that this record will ever be beaten.

Books

Brown has written several books about his experiences, including many describing the flight characteristics of the various aircraft he flew, and an autobiography. He is also the author of dozens of articles in aviation magazines and journals.

Current

He finally gave up his wings at 70 years old, but still lectures. He is a regular attendee of British Rocketry Oral History Programme (BROHP), where the annual presentation of the Sir Arthur Clarke Awards takes place. He was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award for 2007.

References

External links

Bibliography

Wings of the Luftwaffe - Capt Eric Brown (Airlife Publishing Ltd., 2002) ISBN 978-1853104138.
Wings of the Navy: Flying Allied Carrier Aircraft of World War Two - Capt Eric Brown (Naval Institute Press, 1987) ISBN 978-0870219955.
Wings on my Sleeve - Capt Eric Brown (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006) ISBN 978-0297845652.