Eric "Winkle" Brown, Test Pilot Extraordinaire

Sub-Lieutenant Eric Melrose Brown, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, circa 1939.

The Early Years

Eric Melrose Brown was born in Leith, Scotland, on January 21, 1918, the son of Robert John Brown, a Royal Air Force officer, and Euphenia Melrose Brown.

His father introduced young Eric to flying at the age of 8, assuring that Eric would continue the family legacy.

Eric Brown attended the Royal High School in Edinburgh, Scotland, followed by the Fettes College, and then at the Univeristy of Edinbugh.

While Eric was a student at university he made a number of trips to Berlin as a student. In 1936 he witnessed the Olympic Games and caught the first indoor helicopter flights made by Hanna Reitsch, Germany's greatest female aviator.

Having befriended young Hanna, Eric continued to correspond with her until her death in 1979.

Military Service Begins

On December 4th, 1939, Eric Brown volunteered for the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. He had already learned to fly while at the University Air Squadron while at the University of Edinburgh.

Eric's friends bestowed the nickname "Winkle" after a after a thumbnail-size sea snail known as a periwinkle. 

You see, Eric "Winkle" Brown was a man of short height and slight build, the perfect size for a fighter pilot!

Brown received a commission as a temporary Sub-Lieutenant, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, November 26, 1940. Thn he briefly served with No. 801 Squadron before being transferred to No. 802 Squadron.

He flew the Grumman G-36A Martlet Mk.I (the export version of the U.S. Navy F4F-3 Wildcat fighter) from the escort carrier HMS Audacity (D10) on Gibraltar convoys.

A photograph of a Grumman G-36A Martlet Mk.I fighter like the one flown by Eric Brown.

Having shot down several enemy aircraft, including two Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor four-engine patrol bombers, Brown was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

End Of His Career?

On December 21, 1941m the HMS Audacity was attacked and sunk by an enemy submarine while out in the Atlantic Ocean.

HMS Audacity before she was sunk on December 21, 1941.

Brown was one of only 24 to escape from the sinking ship, but only he and one other survived long enough in the frigid water to be rescued.

His special piloting skills were quickly recognized, and in 1942, he was posted to the Royal Aircraft establishment at Farnborough, a testing site for new aircraft.

He then served as an experimental test pilot and chief test pilot from 1944 to 1949.

Nope, Still Flying!

On April 1, 1943 Eric Brown was promoted to lieutenant, and after a number of operational assignments, Lt. Brown was assigned to the Royal Navy Test Squadron for the Airplane and Armamnet Experimental Deparment at Boscombe Down in December of 1943.

A month later Lt. Brown was named Chief Naval Test Pilot at the Royal Aircraft Deparment in Farnborough. Eric continued to hold that post until 1949.

He first flew a helicopter — the Sikorsky R-4B Hoverfly — in February 1945, as one of several UK pilots selected to do so with little more than a short briefing.


A photograph of a Royal Navy Sikorsky R-4 on MV Daghestan 1944.

The First Carrier Landing In A Jet Aircraft

On December 3, 1945, Eric "Winkle" Brown became the first pilot to land a jet powered aircraft on an aircraft carrier and then takeoff from an aircraft carrier.

Lieutenant Commander Eric Melrose Brown, Chief Naval Test Pilot at RAE Farnborough, landed a de Havilland DH.100 Sea Vampire Mk. 10, number LZ551/G, on the Royal Navy "Colossus" class light aircraft carrier, the HMS Ocean.

The DH.100 first flew on March 17, 1944, and was used for flight testing. In 1945 the aircraft was modified for flight operations off of an aircaft carrier.

The Vampire entered service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1945 and remained in service until 1953.

A landing signal officer guides Brown to land aboard HMS Ocean:



De Havilland Sea Vampire Mk.10 LZ551 G catches the arresting wire aboard HMS Ocean:



De Havilland Sea Vampire Mk.10 takes off from HMS Ocean:



Lieutenant-Commander Eric (“Winkle”) Brown, MBE, DSC, RNVR, standing in front of the DH.100 Sea Vampire aircraft:



HMS Ocean aircraft carrier at sea in 1945:



HMS Ocean was built at the Alexander Stephen and Sons yard on the Clyde, Glasgow, Scotland.

The ship was launched in 1944 and commissioned on August 8, 1945.

Classed as a light fleet carrier, HMS Ocean was 630 feet long at the water line, with a beam of 80 feet, 1 inch and standard draft of 18 feet, 6 inches at 13,190 tons displacement; 23 feet, 3 inches ,at full load displacement of18,000 tons.

The aircraft carrier’s  flight deck was 695 feet, 6 inches long. 

Ocean was driven by four Parsons geared steam turbines producing 40,000 shaft horsepower, and had a maximum speed of 25 knots (28.8 miles per hour). 

HMS Ocean had a crew of 1,050 sailors, and could carry 52 aircraft.

HMS Ocean served for twelve years before being placed in reserve. Five years later, she was scrapped at Faslane, Scotland.

Retirement

On 1 January 1970, Captain Brown was named a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.) in the Queen’s New Years Honours List.

Captain Eric Melrose Brown, C.B.E., D.S.C., A.F.C., K.C.V.S.A., Ph.D. Hon. F.R.Ae.S., R.N., retired from active duty 12 March 1970.

At that time, he had accumulated more than 18,000 flight hours, with over 8,000 hours as a test pilot. Captain Brown had flown 487 different aircraft types (not variants), a record which is unlikely to ever be broken.

Brown made more landings on aircraft carriers than any other pilot, with 2407 landings, fixed wing, and 212 landings, helicopter.

He made 2,721 catapult launches, both at sea and on land.

In 1982 and 1983, Captain Brown served as president of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Eric “Winkle” Brown died at Redhill, Surrey, England, 21 February 2016, at the age of 97 years.