wellyman Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Anyone see this on bbc 2 last week ? - Eric "winkle" Brown born in Leith and aged 95, flew over 480 different aircraft types, was involved with interviewing various Nazis at war's end and was the worlds leading pilot on landing aircraft onto carriers. A really interesting story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armchair Bob Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 No, but I've read his books. Amazing fella. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toepoke Posted November 23, 2017 Share Posted November 23, 2017 Just seen this for the first time on BBC4. What an extraordinary life, great that they got to make this programme before he died... http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b045pbq2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antidote Posted November 24, 2017 Share Posted November 24, 2017 Seen him on a couple of programmes, maybe a repeat? He was a very brave man indeed. Saw the part where he described testing a German jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262 I think, an aircraft that had killed many German pilots before. He relished the challenge even though he hadn't flown anything like it before. You'll not see many the like him again, considering the rigorous testing they had not long after. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biffer Posted November 24, 2017 Share Posted November 24, 2017 Couple of cracking things I remember about him. He looped the loop in a spitfire under / over the Forth Bridge. The yanks tried for years, decades, to get a pilot to break his record for number of landings on an aircraft carrier but they eventually gave up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toepoke Posted November 24, 2017 Share Posted November 24, 2017 20 hours ago, antidote said: He was a very brave man indeed. Saw the part where he described testing a German jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262 I think, an aircraft that had killed many German pilots before. Even more impressive flying the Komet rocket plane. Flew nearly 500 different variants of aircraft, I'd be surprised if there's that many types of plane currently in military service the world over... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grim Jim Posted November 25, 2017 Share Posted November 25, 2017 Thanks for the link Toepoke. I managed to miss the programme each time it was on TV. I'd just finished reading Wings on my Sleeve coincidentally. I read that several times aircraft manufacturers would get into difficulty and ask Farnborough and hence Winkle to dig them out their hole. Must have been pretty scary stepping into the DH.108 to replicate the fault that killed its previous test pilot, then having such a narrow escape too. The 3rd and final prototype killed his successor too. The number of deck landings is amazing when you consider attrition rates as well Biffer. Even in operational service 38% of the RN's Sea Vixens were lost in accidents, killing 51 aircrew, and 51% of their Scimitars too. (Plus he did a lot of simulated deck landings and catapult take-offs on land, and a load of undercarriageless landings on a matress.) Scary Sea Vixen pic. The wee helicopter's job is to fish the aircrew out the drink as required. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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