Winkle: The Extraordinary Life of Britain’s Greatest Pilot

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During the war, Brown’s fluency in German and expertise on aircraft made him valuable in interviewing many important figures, including captured German pilots – gathering crucial information about their aircraft, tactics and training. As a fellow airman, he knew the right questions to ask, consequently gaining invaluable insights. Another detail that Beaver disproved during his research was Brown’s claim that his father Robert served as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. “I did get his father’s military record and he was in the Royal Flying Corps, but not as a pilot – he was a labourer working on the observation balloons.” In the 40 years that I knew our greatest pilot, I always called him Eric, by the way, but of course the world knows him as Winkle, the shortest pilot in the Fleet Air Arm. When Eric was taken ill in 2016, I was the first outside the immediate family he called and so I feel the bond between us was strong. On the occasion of the publication of his new biography of legendary test pilot and record holder, Captain Eric Melrose ‘Winkle’ Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, FRAeS, RN, author and historian PAUL BEAVER FRAeS gives an insight into the research of WINKLE – the Extraordinary Life of Britain’s Greatest Pilot and separating fact from fiction. Eric must have looked a bit forlorn, so Glenn asked him, ‘Can you play an instrument?’ Of course, Eric couldn’t, but he said, ‘I can play the drums’, which is actually not true. So, he became the second drummer and just drummed away.”

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Admiralty Official Collection - IWM / Public Domain 2. He rode in a ‘wall of death’ stunt – with a real lion The big revelation is that Brown's origins were far more humble than he ever admitted. And in the class-conscious Royal Navy, that was not a career-enhancing situation. Especially when you are a Naval Aviator, the sort of person who had limited career prospects to begin with in the RN. (I will state categorically that had Brown flown for the USN, he would have made Rear Admiral. The only question is whether he would have retired as Commander, Naval Air Test Center - or as Commander, Naval Air Systems Command.) I think that as a biography this stands up very well. With unprecedented access to Brown’s paper’s and logbooks he is able to give a far moot warts and all account of Brown’s life than Brown was capable of whilst still showing his subject through the lense of a 40 year friendship. By a twist of fate, it turned out to be the Glenn Miller’s final public performance. The following day, Miller flew to Paris. His aircraft disappeared over the English Channel in atrocious weather, with all on board lost. What is remarkable is that he was arrested on September 3, 1939. Had they not released him, there would be no biography of Eric Brown. He would have been interned for the duration of the war. He wouldn’t have become a pilot.”Much has been written, and much video interview time expended, and widely available, on the remarkable life of Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown, R.N., perhaps the world most experienced test pilot. Paul Beaver’s new biography adds much to the man’s extraordinary history. That particular incident took place in the skies above the Bay of Biscay in October 1941. Brown, then only 21, was in his Martlet fighter when he found himself face-to-face with a German Condor bomber, “a flying porcupine, with dangerous weapons facing in every direction”.

A] thumping great biography by Britain's leading aviation historian' DAILY MAIL, 'BOOK OF THE WEEK'

The first indication, he says, that some details “didn’t add up” came following Brown’s death in 2016, aged 97. “After he died his family gave me all the papers,” recalls Beaver. “I was the first non-family member they called when he was taken ill in 2016 because we were close.

In 1936, Brown’s father took him to see the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, during which Brown witnessed Hitler shaking hands with Jesse Owens. At the time, Hermann Göring had recently announced the existence of the Luftwaffe, and Brown and his father (a former balloon observer and pilot in the Royal Flying Corps) met and were invited to join social gatherings by its members. As befits a man who is both a Conservative MP and biographer of the political philosophers Adam Smith and Edmund Burke, Norman understands the interplay of power and influence innately. His debut novel channels the style and approach of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, depicting the bitter struggle for preferment and position between the scholar Francis Bacon and the lawyer Edward Coke in the Elizabethan court. Similarities to the murkiness of contemporary politics are surely coincidental. Act of Oblivion

During his flying career, Brown flew 487 different types of aircraft– many of them as a test pilot, when the designs were still mostly experimental and thus potentially very dangerous. (For comparison, today’s test pilots average fewer than 100 flights – any number over 50 is considered substantial). Small in stature but immense in reputation and talent, there was more to Eric 'Winkle' Brown than met the eye. An incredible life ... Brown took a secret to the grave that makes his story all the more remarkable The Sun Riveting ... one of those must-read books, compelling and full of incidents that leave you gasping with surprise ... an incredible story Flyer