Eric 'Winkle' Brown: Celebrated British pilot dies, aged 97

BBC ^ | 21 February 2016 | BBC

[moose07]

The Royal Navy's most decorated pilot, Capt Eric "Winkle" Brown, has died at the age of 97.

Capt Brown also held the world record for flying the greatest number of different types of aircraft - 487.

During World War Two, Capt Brown, who was born in Leith in 1919, flew fighter aircraft and witnessed the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp.

The pilot, who had been appointed MBE, OBE and CBE, died at East Surrey Hospital after a short illness.

A statement released by his family said: "It is with deep regret that the passing of Captain Eric Melrose Brown CBE DSC AFC is announced.

"Eric was the most decorated pilot of the Fleet Air Arm in which service he was universally known as 'Winkle' on account of his diminutive stature.

"He also held three absolute Guinness World Records, including for the number of aircraft carrier deck landings and types of aeroplane flown."

[snip]

Landmark life

Flew 487 different types of aircraft, a world record that is unlikely ever to be matched
Piloted 2,407 aircraft carrier landings
Appointed MBE, OBE and CBE
Survived 11 plane crashes and the sinking of HMS Audacity in 1941
Met Churchill and King George VI numerous times
Was at the liberation of Bergen Belsen
Interrogated some of the leading Nazis after the war,
including Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Goering and
Belsen's chief guards Josef Kramer and Irma Grese

---

Pictures and more info at site.

[EveningStar]

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[Talisker]

What a newbie. /s

[moose07]

Total amateur,eh!
:)

[Lorianne]

So he was short. I read another history of British pilots in WWII and a number of them did not meet the height requirements, yet they became excellent pilots and Britain needed all the pilots they could get.

[moose07]

Sure did.
Douglas Bader flew with tin legs.
IIRC some of the highest scoring squadrons where amongst the ‘600’ volunteer units during the Battle of Britain.

[RayChuang88]

Eric "Winkle" Brown was the British equivalent of Charles "Chuck" Yeager. And would have been the first human to exceed the speed of sound had the British government not foolishly cancelled the Miles M.52 test plane in middle 1946 (and Miles was proven right when a scale model of the M.52 built by Barnes Wallis at Vickers-Armstrong easily broke the sound barrier in a 1949 test flight).

As such, Brown was assigned to the de Havilland D.H. 108 Swallow test program. It his test flying that proved that D.H. 108 was too dangerous a plane to fly at trans-sonic speeds because the plane was dangerously unstable as it approached the speed of sound (it was that instability that killed Geoffrey de Havilland during a test dive). It's likely if the British government went ahead with the TSR.2 that Brown would have done a lot of the test flying before the plane entered service.

[moose07]

Thanks for that. :)
He most certainly was/is a national icon.
Appearing regularly on the TV over the years. His books are always an exciting read.
He will be missed in an “Eric’s explanation of that would have been nice” way.
RIP, Eric.