page_title: Eric Brown (pilot)
section_title: Brown's first encounters with jet flight
hierarchical_section_title: Eric Brown (pilot) / Wartime service / Brown's first encounters with jet flight
caption_attribution_description: English: Sikorsky R-4B Hoverfly I of the Royal Air Force at Manchester (Ringway) Airport
context_page_description: Captain Eric Melrose "Winkle" Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, Hon FRAeS, RN was a British Royal Navy officer and test pilot who flew 487 types of aircraft, more than anyone else in history.
  Brown holds the world record for the most aircraft carrier deck take-offs and landings performed and achieved several "firsts" in naval aviation, including the first landings on an aircraft carrier of a twin-engined aircraft, an aircraft with a tricycle undercarriage, a jet aircraft, and a rotary-wing aircraft.
  He flew almost every category of Royal Navy and Royal Air Force aircraft: glider, fighter, bomber, airliner, amphibian, flying boat and helicopter. During World War II, he flew many types of captured German, Italian, and Japanese aircraft, including new jet and rocket aircraft. He was a pioneer of jet technology into the postwar era.
context_section_description: 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 during a flight 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 flew modified aircraft incorporating components intended for the M.52; however, the post-war government cancelled the project in 1945 with the M.52 almost complete. On 2 May 1944, he was appointed MBE "for outstanding enterprise and skill in piloting aircraft during hazardous aircraft trials."
caption: A Royal Air Force Hoverfly I of the type flown by Brown from Speke to Farnborough in 1945
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