Now this is what you call a life story! "Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown has flown more types of aircraft than anyone in history, survived 11 crashes, interrogated high-ranking Nazis, and met everyone from wartime leader Winston Churchill to first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong. He is a war hero in the truest sense of the word. Now aged 94, the Edinburgh-born fighter pilot says he has finally "buckled down to domestic life". [SIZE=1.077em]Eric 'Winkle' Brown is no ordinary aviator.[/SIZE] He is part of an elite group of test pilots who took the untried - and sometimes deadly - theories of aeroplane designers down the runway and into the sky. Over his career, he flew 487 different types of aircraft, a world record that is unlikely ever to be matched. It's a job that requires a certain type of personality, he told Radio Four's PM programme. [SIZE=1.077em]"My brain goes very sort of cold, and very good at considering things."[/SIZE]"I have a nature that doesn't panic in these situations," he said. Nobody is without fear, he said, but there was often a casual attitude among the other pilots. "They'd say "kick your tyres, light your fires, and the last one off's a sissy". "I was not of that school at all. I always put two things down to my survival. I was always meticulous in my preparation. "Secondly, my height - I'm only 5ft 7in - saved me because there were occasions I would have lost my legs in crashes." It was his height that earned him his nickname "Winkle" - short for "periwinkle", a type of small mollusc - from his colleagues. "I would put my legs under the seat and curl up like a little ball in the cockpit," he said. Captain Brown, the most decorated test pilot of all time, was also the first person ever to land a jet on an aircraft carrier in 1945. He described the moment like being a "matchbox floating in a bath"." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22254048
Here is a copy of a rather grainy photo showing Winkle Brown leading a flight of F4F3 Martlet fighters flying rather close to a neutral American airliner they were investigating, havign flown from HMS Audacity. This caused a minor diplomatic incident. Its not just Tom Cruise who could fly inverted for effect....
Here is a copy of a rather grainy photo showing Winkle Brown leading a flight of F4F3 Martlet fighters flying rather close to a neutral American airliner (Boeing Clipper??) they were investigating, havign flown from HMS Audacity. This caused a minor diplomatic incident. Its not just Tom Cruise who could fly inverted for effect....
no doubt there are some who will decry his achievements. He can still be spotted in and around Tunbridge Wells, especially at signing events organised by the Aviation Bookshop..
