NEWS Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown, RN

[Flash]

Royal Navy test pilot Captain 'Winkle' Brown has passed, he held the world record for number of aircraft piloted (487) and the number of 'traps' (2407). Among other things he did in his career was get two kills, survive the sinking of his carrier, meet some important Nazis before the war and interrogate some of the same ones after it, survive flying the Me 163 and make the first carrier landing in a jet. Fair winds and following seas Captain!

 

[wink]

I am frequently in awe when reading stuff like that not just because of the man's story, but simply because it highlights how different those times were. Do the times/circumstances make the man or the man create the circumstance of their lives? I would never dis what so many great young men and women have done in the post Cold War years, especially the GWOT. I have heard fantastic stories from the sand box. But will things like this be written about our contemporary heros 60+ years from now? If not, maybe it will be more because Americans don't see military heros like they did in the 40s and 50s. Or maybe it is because the nature of the contemporary military and modern warfare do not create the same sort of circumstances Capt Brown faced.

 

[MIDNJAC]

Reading through that wiki page, I stumbled also across this very interesting aviator (or aviatrix I suppose?)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna_Reitsch

Granted she seems to have remained a hardcore nazi until her death in 1979, still a pretty interesting life she led. Not to get off topic or anything

 

[Redux]

That's phenomenal ................world record for number of aircraft piloted (487) Id buy round after round to hear best and worst stories.

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

One of his two kills was FW200 Condor, and Brown had then flown F4F-3A, a Martlet II in FAA marking. There was definitely the same kind of attack that Luftwaffe pilots had used later against USAAF B-17s - a frontal attack with long strafing run, intended to kill a people in "greenhouse" and pilot/co-pilot armchairs. Brown wrote he clearly saw all men in forward cockpit of German bomber were dead after his run.

 

[Flash]

Reading through that wiki page, I stumbled also across this very interesting aviator (or aviatrix I suppose?)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna_Reitsch

Granted she seems to have remained a hardcore nazi until her death in 1979, still a pretty interesting life she led. Not to get off topic or anything

Actually that was one of the Nazis I was referring to that he interrogated after the war. Her career was a pretty remarkable one as well, flying many notable aircraft to include the manned version of the V-1 (she was pretty small) and the last plane out of Berlin at the end of the war. Unfortunately you are right that she is irrevocably tainted by her commitment to the Nazi regime even after the war.

 

[Flash]

That's phenomenal ................world record for number of aircraft piloted (487) Id buy round after round to hear best and worst stories.

As noted in the Wiki article it is even more remarkable when you consider that those were only 'primary' types, the Spitfire is only counted as one aircraft even though he flew 13 different versions.

 

[VMO4]

I wonder if somewhere around the 2200 th trap you stop worrying about the grade from the LSO.

I also just kindle'd his autobiography, "Wings on my Sleeve", looks good so far.

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

I wonder if somewhere around the 2200 th trap you stop worrying about the grade from the LSO.

There was no LSO in USN's meaning on Brit carriers. A kind of similar job, DLCO - Deck Landing Control Officer - was not definitely similar to "Paddles" as he was not authorized to wave the landing plane off - just visual help to pilot, but to land or not to land in this approach was completely up to pilot in question, if the deck was generally open. It seems to me that the last RN carrier arresting landings, fall of 1978 on HMS Ark Royal, were of the same fashion.

 

[highside7r]

Good watch here: