Eric "Winkle" Brown
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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.[1]
Born in January 1919, he first flew when he was 18.
After World War II‚ Brown commanded 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 German scientists after World War II, including Werner Von Braun.
On December 3, 1945, Brown made the world's first landing of a jet aircraft on an aircraft carrier. He landed a de Havilland Sea Vampire on the Royal Navy carrier HMS Ocean.
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.
He was the first to land a jet aircraft on a carrier, and also holds the world's record for the most carrier landings, 2,407.
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).
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- PBS Interview with Eric Brown
- sale description of Brown's book Wings of the Weird and Wonderful (paras 63/65)
[edit] Bibliography
- Wings of the Luftwaffe - Capt Eric Brown (Airlife Publishing Ltd.) ISBN 1-85310-413-2
- Wings of the Weird and Wonderful - Capt Eric Brown
- Wings on my Sleeve (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - Capt Eric Brown ISBN 978-0297845652
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