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 Germans after World War II, including Wernher von Braun and Hermann Goering[2], Willy Messerschmitt and Dr. Ernst Heinkel[3].

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

Brown is responsible to two important firsts in carrier aviation - the first carrier landing using an aircraft equipped with a tricycle undercarriage (Bell P-39 Airacrobra Mk1 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 a de Havilland Sea Vampire 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.

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.

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.

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.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Paisley University Library Special Collections - Putnam Aeronautical 1997
  2. ^ Wings on my Sleeve- Eric "Winkle" Brown pg.110
  3. ^ British Rocketry Oral History Programme Conference 2004

[edit] External links

[edit] Bibliography

  • Wings of the Luftwaffe - Capt Eric Brown (Airlife Publishing Ltd., 2002) ISBN 978-1853104138.
  • Capt. Eric Brown (1983). Wings of the Weird & Wonderful Vol. 1. Airlife. ISBN 0906393-30-2. 
  • Capt. Eric Brown. Wings of the Weird & Wonderful Vol. 2. Airlife. 
  • 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.
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