Eric Brown (pilot)

Eric Melrose "Winkle" Brown
Nickname(s)	Winkle
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service / branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1939–1970
Rank	Captain
Battles / wars	World War II Channel Front
Awards	Distinguished Service Cross Air Force Cross
Other work	Aviation consultant Author

The first carrier landing and take-off of a jet aircraft - Eric "Winkle" Brown taking-off from HMS Ocean in the Sea Vampire LZ551/G in 1945 - this aircraft is preserved at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton

Captain Eric Melrose "Winkle" Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC (born 21 January 1919) 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

Brown was born on 21 January 1919, in Leith. He first flew when he was 18.

In 1936 Brown's father, an ex-Royal Flying Corps pilot, had taken him to see the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, where, Herman Goring having recently announced the existence of the Luftwaffe, Brown and his father met, and were invited to join social gatherings, by members of the newly-disclosed organisation. It was here that Brown first met Ernst Udet, a former World War I fighter ace. Brown, a fluent German-speaker, soon discovered in himself and Udet a shared love of flying, and Udet offered to take Brown up with him. Brown eagerly accepted the German's offer, and he was soon flying in a two-seat Bucker Jungmann which Udet threw around much to Brown's delight. Udet told Brown he "must learn to fly" and that he "had the temperament of a fighter pilot".

In 1937 Brown left school and entered Edinburgh University studying Modern Languages, with an emphasis on German. While there he joined the University's Air Unit and received his first formal flying instruction. In February 1938 he returned to Germany, where, having been invited to attend the 1938 Automobile Exhibition by Udet, by then a Luftwaffe Major General, he saw the demonstration of a helicopter flown by Hanna Reitsch before a small crowd. During this visit he met and got to know Reitsch. Brown was later to renew his acquaintance with her after the war, in less pleasant circumstances, she having been arrested after the German surrender in 1945.

In the meantime, Brown had been selected to take part as an exchange student at the Salem International College, located on the banks of Lake Constance, and it was here that one morning in September 1939 Brown was woken up with a loud knocking on his door. Upon opening the door he was met by a woman with the announcement that "our countries are at war". Soon after, Brown was arrested by the SS. Fortunately, they merely escorted Brown in his MG sports car to the Swiss border, saying they were allowing him to keep the car because they 'had no spares for it'.

Career

On returning to England now at war, he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve as a Fleet Air Arm pilot, where he was posted to 802 Squadron, initially serving on the early escort carrier HMS Audacity flying the Grumman Martlet. During his service on board the Audacity he shot down two Focke-Wulf Fw 200 "Condor" maritime patrol aircraft. The Audacity was torpedoed and sunk on 21 December 1941 by U-751, commanded by Gerhard Bigalk. Eric Brown was one of only two survivors of the squadron. The loss of life was such that 802 Squadron was disbanded until February 1942. On 10 March 1942 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his service on Audacity, in particular "For bravery and skill in action against Enemy aircraft and in the protection of a Convoy against heavy and sustained Enemy attacks".

Following the loss of Audacity, Brown was posted to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) at Farnborough, where his experience in deck landings was sought. While there he initially performed testing of the newly-navalised Sea Hurricane and Seafire. By the close of 1943 he had performed around 1,500 deck landings on 22 different carriers.

In 1943 Brown resumed operational flying, being seconded to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) flying escort operations to USAAF B-17s over France. He also flew several stints with Fighter Command in the air defence of Great Britain. During this time, Brown's home was destroyed by a V1 "Doodlebug" Flying Bomb, fortunately without harm to his family.

After his time operational, again in 1943, he then went back to the RAE, this time to perform experimental flying, almost immediately being transferred to southern Italy to evaluate captured Regia Aeronautica and Luftwaffe aircraft. This Brown did with almost no tuition, information having to be gleaned from whatever documents were available. On completion of these duties, his commander, being impressed with his performance, sent him back to the RAE with the recommendation that he be employed in the Aerodynamics Flight department at Farnborough. During the first month in the Flight, Brown flew 13 different aircraft types, including a captured enemy one, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190.

While at Farnborough as Chief Naval Test Pilot, Brown was involved in the deck landing trials of the Sea Mosquito, the heaviest aircraft yet chosen to be flown from a British carrier. Brown landed one for the first time on HMS Implacable on 25 March 1944. Unfortunately, the ship's accommodation officer had forgotten to reserve Brown a cabin on the carrier, so Brown was forced to bed-down on a wardroom sofa for the night.

At this time, the RAE was the leading authority on high speed flight, and Brown became involved in this sort of testing, flights being flown where the aircraft, usually a Spitfire, would be dived at speeds of the high subsonic and near transonic region. Figures achieved by Brown and his colleagues during these tests reaching Mach 0.86 for a standard Spitfire IX, to Mach 0.92 for a modified Spitfire PR Mk XI flown by his colleague Sqn Ldr Anthony F. Martindale.

During this same period the RAE was approached by United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) General Jimmy Doolittle with a request for help, as the 8th Air Force had been having trouble when their Lightning, Thunderbolt and Mustang aircraft dived down onto attacking German fighters whilst providing top cover for the bombers, some of the fighters encountering speed regions where they became difficult to control. As a result of Doolittle's request, early in 1944 the P-38H Lightning, P-51B Mustang and P-47C Thunderbolt, were dived for compressibility testing at the RAE by Brown and several other pilots. The results of the tests were that the tactical Mach numbers, i.e., the manoeuvring limits, were Mach 0.68 for the Lightning, Mach 0.71 for the Thunderbolt, and Mach 0.78 for the Mustang. The corresponding figure for both the Fw 190 and Me 109 was Mach 0.75. The tests flown by Brown and his colleagues resulted in Doolittle being able to argue with his superiors for the Mustang to be chosen in preference to the P-38 and P-47 for all escort duties from then on, which it subsequently was.

Brown had been made aware of the British progress in jet propulsion in May 1941 when he had heard of the Gloster E.28/39 after diverting in bad weather to RAF Cranwell, and had subsequently met Frank Whittle when asked to suggest improvements to the jet engine to make it more suitable for naval use. This resulted in the Gloster Meteor being selected as the Royal Navy's first jet fighter, although, as it turned out, few would be used by them. Brown was also selected as the pilot for the Miles M.52 supersonic research aircraft programme, and he himself flew modified aircraft incorporating components intended for the M.52, however, the post-war government later cancelled the project in 1945 with the M.52 almost complete.

During carrier compatibility trials, Brown crashlanded a Fairey Firefly Mk. I, Z1844, on the deck of HMS Pretoria Castle on 9 September 1943, when the arrestor hook indicator light falsely showed the hook was in the "down" position. The fighter hit the crash barrier, sheared off its undercarriage and shredded the propeller, but the pilot was unhurt. On 2 May 1944 he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire "for outstanding enterprise and skill in piloting aircraft during hazardous aircraft trials."

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

Post War

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, Arado Ar 234, and Heinkel He 162 jet planes.

Fluent in German, he helped interview many Germans after World War II, including Wernher von Braun and Hermann Göring, Willy Messerschmitt and Dr. Ernst Heinkel. He was also able to renew acquaintances with German aviatrix Hanna Reitsch, whom he had met in Germany before the war.

As an RAE test pilot he was involved in the wartime Miles M.52 supersonic project, test flying a Spitfire fitted with the M.52's all moving tail, diving from high altitude to achieve high subsonic speeds. He was due fly the M.52, but this fell through when the project was cancelled, allowing Chuck Yeager to become the first man to exceed Mach 1 in 1947.

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 Airacobra Mk 1 AH574) on the trials carrier HMS Pretoria Castle on 4 April 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 3 December 1945. He also holds the world's record for the most carrier landings, 2,407.

In 1946 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 Mach 0.88 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. In 1948 Brown was awarded the Boyd Trophy for his work with trials for the rubber deck landing system On 30 March 1949 he was granted a permanent Royal Navy commission as a lieutenant, with seniority backdated to his original wartime promotion to the rank.

On 12 August 1949, he was testing the third of three Saunders-Roe SR.A/1 jet-powered flying-boat fighter prototypes, TG271, when he struck submerged debris with the aircraft sinking in the Solent off Cowes, Isle of Wight, Lt. Cdr. Brown surviving. He was promoted lieutenant-commander on 1 April 1951, commander on 31 December 1953 and captain on 31 December 1960.

In the 1960s, due to his considerable experience of carrier aviation, Brown was consulted on the flight deck arrangement of the planned new UK class of aircraft carrier, the CVA-01, although the ship was subsequently cancelled while still on the stocks. He was appointed a Naval Aide de Camp to Queen Elizabeth II on 7 July 1969, and promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1970 New Year Honours. He relinquished his appointment as Naval ADC on 27 January 1970.

Records

Main article: List of aircraft flown by Eric "Winkle" Brown

He flew aircraft from Britain, the United States, 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.

His most well-known series of articles are the 'Viewed from the Cockpit' which were published (and occasionally re-published) in the journal Air International. Captain Brown's studies of famous naval and captured enemy aircraft are refreshing and compelling reading, and include some remarkable types that would otherwise remain mysterious to the aviation enthusiast. Flight review highlights in this series have included the following types:

• Dornier Do 217
• Fairey Swordfish
• Fairey Fulmar
• Fairey Spearfish, a prototype torpedo bomber (1947) which Brown did not enjoy
• Fairey Barracuda, which Brown found lackluster and somewhat disappointing
• Focke-Wulf 190 A and D Series.
• Grumman F9F Panthers & Cougars, which Brown found (on initial models) somewhat underpowered
• Hawker Sea Fury
• Hawker Sea-Hurricane
• Heinkel He 111
• Supermarine Seafire, various marks.
• Bf 109 E (Emil) and G (Gustav) - Brown successfully flew the G-12 Training sub-type from the rear cockpit, a flight that very nearly ended in disaster given the extremely poor visibility afforded the instructor.
• Me-163 Komet, which is a unique article, as Brown is one of few pilots to fly one of these and not come to grief.
• Me-262 Schwalbe.
• Heinkel He 177 Greif bomber, again a unique interpretation.

Current

Brown stopped being a pilot when he turned 70 but he 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.

Nickname

Brown received the affectionate nickname "Winkle" from his Royal Navy colleagues. Short for Periwinkle, a small mollusc, the name was given to Brown because of his short stature.

External links

• Former BBC space correspondent Reg Turnill interviews Eric Brown in 2008
• sale description of Brown's book Wings of the Weird and Wonderful (paras 63/65)
• The Sea Vampire LZ551/G at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton
• [1] video of test pilot Eric "Winkle" Brown landing a Sea Vampire on the experimental rubber deck fitted to HMS Warrior.
• Captain Eric Brown: Wedded to German Aviation for Better or Worse

Bibliography

• Brown, Capt. Eric (1983). Wings of the Weird & Wonderful. Vol. 1. Airlife. ISBN 0906393-30-2.
• Brown, Capt. Eric (1985). Wings of the Weird & Wonderful. Vol. 2. Airlife. ISBN 0-906393-44-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
• Brown, Capt. Eric (1987). Wings of the Navy: Flying Allied Carrier Aircraft of World War Two. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0870219955. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
• Brown, Capt. Eric (1989). Duels in the Sky: World War II Naval Aircraft in Combat. Airlife. ISBN 1-85310-046-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
• Brown, Capt. Eric (2002). Wings of the Luftwaffe. Airlife. ISBN 978-1853104138. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
• Brown, Capt. Eric (2006). Wings on my Sleeve. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0297845652.. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
• Brown, Capt. Eric. The Helicopter in Civil Operations. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
• Brown, Capt. Eric. Aircraft Carriers. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)