Eric Brown ( pilot ) Captain Eric Melrose " Winkle " Brown , CBE , DSC , AFC , Hon FRAeS ( born 21 January 1919 ) is a British former Royal Navy officer and test pilot who has flown more types of aircraft than anyone else in history , piloting 487 different aircraft types . He is also the Fleet Air Arm ’ s most decorated living pilot and holds the world record for aircraft carrier landings – 2 , 407 . Early life . Brown was born on 21 January 1919 , in Leith , near Edinburgh in Scotland . He first flew when he was eight or ten when he was taken up in a Gloster Gauntlet by his father , the younger Brown sitting on his father ' s knee . In 1936 Brown ' s father , an ex - Royal Flying Corps pilot , had taken him to see the 1936 Olympics in Berlin , where , Hermann Göring having recently announced the existence of the Luftwaffe , Brown and his father met and were invited to join social gatherings , by members of the newly disclosed organisation . It was here that Brown first met Ernst Udet , a former World War I fighter ace . Brown , a fluent German - speaker , soon discovered in himself and Udet a shared love of flying and Udet offered to take Brown up with him . Brown eagerly accepted the German ' s offer , and after his arrival at the appointed airfield at Halle , he was soon flying in a two - seat Bucker Jungmann which Udet threw around much to Brown ' s delight . Udet told Brown he " must learn to fly " and that he " had the temperament of a fighter pilot " . In 1937 Brown left The Royal High School and entered Edinburgh University studying Modern Languages , with an emphasis on German . While there he joined the University ' s Air Unit and received his first formal flying instruction . In February 1938 he returned to Germany , where , having been invited to attend the 1938 Automobile Exhibition by Udet , by then a Luftwaffe Major General , he saw the demonstration of the Focke - Wulf Fw 61 helicopter flown by Hanna Reitsch before a small crowd inside the Deutschlandhalle . During this visit he met and got to know Reitsch . Brown was later to renew his acquaintance with her after the war , in less pleasant circumstances , she having been arrested after the German surrender in 1945 . In the meantime , Brown had been selected to take part as an exchange student at the Salem International College , located on the banks of Lake Constance , and it was while there in Germany that Brown was woken up with a loud knocking on his door one morning in September 1939 . Upon opening the door he was met by a woman with the announcement that " our countries are at war " . Soon after , Brown was arrested by the SS . Fortunately , they merely escorted Brown in his MG Magnette sports car to the Swiss border , saying they were allowing him to keep the car because they " had no spares for it " . Wartime service . On returning to a United Kingdom now at war , he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve as a Fleet Air Arm pilot , where he was posted to 802 Squadron , initially serving on the first escort carrier HMS " Audacity " flying the Grumman Martlet . During his service on board the " Audacity " he shot down two Focke - Wulf Fw 200 " Condor " maritime patrol aircraft . The " Audacity " was torpedoed and sunk on 21 December 1941 by " U - 751 " , commanded by Gerhard Bigalk . Eric Brown was one of only two survivors of the squadron . The loss of life was such that 802 Squadron was disbanded until February 1942 . On 10 March 1942 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his service on " Audacity " , in particular " For bravery and skill in action against Enemy aircraft and in the protection of a Convoy against heavy and sustained Enemy attacks " . Following the loss of " Audacity " , Brown was posted to the Royal Aircraft Establishment ( RAE ) at Farnborough , where his experience in deck landings was sought . While there he initially performed testing of the newly navalised Sea Hurricane and Seafire . His aptitude for deck landings led to his posting for the testing of carriers ' landing arrangements before they were brought into service . The testing involved multiple combinations of landing point and type of aircraft . with the result that by the close of 1943 he had performed around 1 , 500 deck landings on 22 different carriers . In 1943 Brown resumed operational flying , being seconded to Royal Canadian Air Force ( RCAF ) squadrons flying escort operations to USAAF B - 17 s over France . His job was to train them in deck - landing techniques , though on airfields . As a form of " quid pro quo " he joined them on fighter operations . He also flew several stints with Fighter Command in the air defence of Great Britain . During this time , Brown ' s home was destroyed by a V1 " Doodlebug " Flying Bomb , but without harm to his family . After his time operational , again in 1943 , he then went back to the RAE , this time to perform experimental flying , almost immediately being transferred to southern Italy to evaluate captured Regia Aeronautica and Luftwaffe aircraft . This Brown did with almost no tuition , information having to be gleaned from whatever documents were available . On completion of these duties , his commander , being impressed with his performance , sent him back to the RAE with the recommendation that he be employed in the Aerodynamics Flight department at Farnborough . During the first month in the Flight , Brown flew thirteen aircraft types , including a captured Focke - Wulf Fw 190 . While at Farnborough as Chief Naval Test Pilot , Brown was involved in the deck landing trials of the Sea Mosquito , the heaviest aircraft yet chosen to be flown from a British carrier . Brown landed one for the first time on HMS " Implacable " on 25 March 1944 . At this time , the RAE was the leading authority on high - speed flight and Brown became involved in this sort of testing , flights being flown where the aircraft , usually a Spitfire , would be dived at speeds of the high subsonic and near transonic region . Figures achieved by Brown and his colleagues during these tests reaching Mach 0 . 86 for a standard Spitfire IX , to Mach 0 . 92 for a modified Spitfire PR Mk XI flown by his colleague Sqn Ldr Anthony F . Martindale . Together with Brown and Martindale , the RAE Aerodynamics Flight also included two other test pilots , Sqn Ldr James " Jimmy " Nelson and Sqn Ldr Douglas Weightman . During this same period the RAE was approached by United States Army Air Forces ( USAAF ) General Jimmy Doolittle with a request for help , as the 8th Air Force had been having trouble when their Lightning , Thunderbolt and Mustang aircraft , providing top cover for the bombers , dived down onto attacking German fighters , some of the diving US fighters encountering speed regions where they became difficult to control . As a result of Doolittle ' s request , early in 1944 the P - 38H Lightning , P - 51B Mustang and P - 47C Thunderbolt , were dived for compressibility testing at the RAE by Brown and several other pilots . The results of the tests were that the tactical Mach numbers , i . e . , the manoeuvring limits , were Mach 0 . 68 for the Lightning , Mach 0 . 71 for the Thunderbolt and Mach 0 . 78 for the Mustang . The corresponding figure for both the Fw 190 and Bf 109 was Mach 0 . 75 . The tests flown by Brown and his colleagues resulted in Doolittle being able to argue with his superiors for the Mustang to be chosen in preference to the P - 38 and P - 47 for all escort duties from then on , which it subsequently was . 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 later cancelled the project in 1945 with the M . 52 almost complete . During carrier compatibility trials , Brown crash - landed a Fairey Firefly Mk I , " Z1844 " , on the deck of HMS " Pretoria Castle " on 9 September 1943 , when the arrestor hook indicator light falsely showed the hook was in the " down " position . The fighter hit the crash barrier , sheared off its undercarriage and shredded the propeller , but the pilot was unhurt . On 2 May 1944 he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire " for outstanding enterprise and skill in piloting aircraft during hazardous aircraft trials . " In February 1945 Brown learned that the Aerodynamics Flight had been allocated three Sikorsky R - 4B Hoverfly / Gadfly helicopters . He had never seen one of these tail - rotor machines , so a trip to Farnborough was arranged and Brown had a short flight as a passenger in one . A few days later Brown and Martindale were sent to RAF Speke to collect two new R - 4Bs . On arrival , they found the American mechanics assembling the machines , and when Brown asked the Master Sergeant in charge about himself and Martindale being taught to fly them , he was handed a " large orange - coloured booklet " with the retort ; " Whaddya mean , bud ? - Here ' s your instructor " . Brown and Martindale examined the booklet and after several practice attempts at hovering and controlling the craft , followed by a stiff drink , they set off for Farnborough . Brown and Martindale managed the trip safely , if raggedly , in formation , although sometimes as much as a couple of miles apart . Enemy flight . With the end of the European war in sight , the RAE prepared itself to acquire German aeronautical technology and aircraft before it was either accidentally destroyed or taken by the Soviets , and , due to his skills in the language , Brown was made CO of " Enemy Flight " . He flew to northern Germany ; among the targets for the RAE was the Arado Ar 234 , a new jet bomber that the Allies , particularly the Americans , were much interested in . A number of the jets were based at an airfield in Denmark , the German forces having retreated there . He expected to arrive at a liberated aerodrome , just after it had been taken by the British Army ; however , German resistance to the Allied advance meant that the ground forces had been delayed and the airfield was still an operational Luftwaffe base . Luckily for Brown , the commanding officer of the Luftwaffe airfield at Grove offered his surrender , Brown taking charge of the airfield and its staff of 2 , 000 men until Allied forces arrived the next day . Subsequently , Brown and Martindale , along with several other members of the Aerodynamics Flight and assisted by a co - operative German pilot , later ferried twelve Ar 234s across the North Sea and on to Farnborough . The venture was not without risk , as before their capture the Germans had destroyed all the engine log books for the aircraft , leaving Brown and his colleagues no idea of the expected engine hours remaining to the machines . Because of the scarcity of the special high - temperature alloys for use in their construction , the Junkers Jumo 004 engines had a life of only 25 hours – it was thus not known whether the engines were brand new or just about to expire . During this period , Brown was asked by Brigadier Glyn Hughes , the Medical Officer of the British 2nd Army occupying the newly liberated Bergen - Belsen concentration camp , to help interrogate the former camp commandant and his assistant . Agreeing to do so , he subsequently interviewed Josef Kramer and Irma Grese , Brown remarking ; " Two more loathsome creatures it is hard to imagine " and describing the latter as " . . . the worst human being I have ever met . " Kramer and Grese were later tried and hanged for war crimes . Post war . After World War II ‚ Brown commanded the Enemy Aircraft Flight , an elite group of pilots who test - flew captured German aircraft . That experience makes Brown one of the few men qualified to compare both Allied and Axis aeroplanes as they flew during the war . He flight - tested 53 German aircraft , including the Me 163 . He tested this rocket plane in powered flight as apparently the only Allied pilot ( having done that rather unofficially , as it was deemed more or less suicidal undertaking due to the notoriously dangerous propellants , C - Stoff and T - Stoff ) , and the Messerschmitt Me 262 , Arado Ar 234 and Heinkel He 162 turbojet planes . Fluent in German , he helped interview many Germans after World War II , including Wernher von Braun and Hermann Göring , Willy Messerschmitt , Dr . Ernst Heinkel , Kurt Tank and top Luftwaffe fighter ace with 352 victories , Erich Hartmann . In addition , Brown spoke to Heinrich Himmler . Coincidently , Brown had himself been using Himmler ' s very own personal aircraft , a specially converted Focke - Wulf Fw 200 Condor that had been captured and was being used by the RAE Flight based at the former Luftwaffe airfield at Schleswig . He was also able to renew acquaintances with German aviatrix Hanna Reitsch , whom he had met in Germany before the war . As an RAE test pilot he was involved in the wartime Miles M . 52 supersonic project , test flying a Spitfire fitted with the M . 52 ' s all moving tail , diving from high altitude to achieve high subsonic speeds . He was due to fly the M . 52 in 1946 , but this fell through when the project was cancelled . The all moving tail information , however , gleaned from British at Miles ' Woodley facility , allowed Bell to modify its XS - 1 for the true transsonic pitch controllability , allowing in turn Chuck Yeager to become the first man to exceed Mach 1 in 1947 . In a throwback to his days testing aircraft in high speed dives , while at the RAE Brown performed similar testing of the Avro Tudor airliner . The requirement was to determine the safe limiting speed for the aircraft and to gather data on high - speed handling of large civil aircraft in preparation for a projected four - jet version of the Tudor . Flying from 32 , 000 ft , in a succession of dives to speeds initially to Mach 0 . 6 , he succeeded in diving the Tudor up to Mach 0 . 7 , an unusual figure for such a large piston - engined aeroplane , this speed figure being dictated by the pilot ' s discretion , as pulling the aircraft out of the dive had required the combined efforts of both Brown and his second pilot . However , as an airliner , the Tudor was not a success . The planned jet - version of the Tudor would later become the Avro Ashton . In 1946 he test flew a modified ( strengthened and control - boosted ) de Havilland DH . 108 after a fatal crash in a similar aircraft while diving at speeds approaching the sound barrier had killed Geoffrey de Havilland , Jr . Brown initially started his tests from a height of 35 , 000 ft , rising to 45 , 000 ft and during a dive from the latter he achieved a Mach number of 0 . 985 . It was only when attempting the tests from the same height as de Havilland , 4 , 000 ft , that he discovered that in a Mach 0 . 88 dive from that altitude the aircraft suffered from a high - g pitch oscillation at several hertz ( Hz ) . " the ride was smooth , then suddenly it all went to pieces . . . as the plane porpoised wildly my chin hit my chest , jerked hard back , slammed forward again , repeated it over and over , flogged by the awful whipping of the plane . . . " . Remembering the drill he had often practised , Brown managed to pull back on both stick and throttle and the motion ; " . . . ceased as quickly as it had started " . He believed that he survived the test flight partly because he was a shorter man , de Havilland having suffered a broken neck possibly due to the violent oscillation . Test instrumentation on Brown ' s flight recorded during the oscillations accelerations of + 4 and −3g ' s at 3 Hz . Brown described the DH 108 as ; " A killer . Nasty stall . Vicious undamped longitudinal oscillation at speed in bumps " . All three DH . 108 aircraft were lost in fatal accidents . In 1948 Brown was awarded the Boyd Trophy for his work in trials for the rubber deck landing system . On 30 March 1949 he was granted a permanent Royal Navy commission as a lieutenant , with seniority backdated to his original wartime promotion to the rank . On 12 August 1949 , he was testing the third of three Saunders - Roe SR . A / 1 jet - powered flying - boat fighter prototypes , " TG271 " , when he struck submerged debris , the aircraft sinking in the Solent off Cowes , Isle of Wight . He was pulled unconscious from the cockpit of the wrecked aircraft , having been knocked out in the crash , by Saunders - Roe test pilot Geoffrey Tyson . He was promoted lieutenant - commander on 1 April 1951 , commander on 31 December 1953 and captain on 31 December 1960 . Brown is responsible for at least two important firsts in carrier aviation – the first carrier landing using an aircraft equipped with a tricycle undercarriage ( Bell Airacobra Mk 1 " AH574 " ) on the trials carrier HMS " Pretoria Castle " on 4 April 1945 and the world ' s first landing of a jet aircraft , landing the de Havilland Sea Vampire " LZ551 / G " on the Royal Navy carrier HMS " Ocean " on 3 December 1945 . He also holds the world ' s record for the most carrier landings , 2 , 407 . In the 1950s during the Korean War , Brown was seconded as an exchange officer for two years to the United States Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent , Maryland , where he flew a number of American aircraft , including 36 types of helicopter . In January 1952 , it was while here that Brown demonstrated the steam catapult to the Americans , flying a Grumman Panther off the carrier HMS " Perseus " while the ship was still tied up to the dock at the Philadelphia Naval Yard . It had been planned for Brown to make the first catapult launch with the ship under way and steaming into any wind ; however , the wind on the day was so slight that British officials decided that , as the new steam catapult was capable of launching an aircraft without any wind , they would risk their pilot ( Brown ) if the Americans would risk their aircraft . The launch was a success and US carriers would later feature the steam catapult . It was around the same time that another British invention was being offered to the US , the Angled Flight deck , and Brown once again was called upon to promote the concept . Whether due to Brown or not , the first US aircraft carrier modified with the new flight deck , the USS " Antietam " , was ready less than nine months later . In 1954 Brown , by then a Commander , became Commander ( Air ) of the RNAS Brawdy , where he remained until returning to Germany in late 1957 , becoming Chief of British Naval Mission to Germany , his brief being to re - establish German naval aviation after its pre - war integration with and subornment to , the Luftwaffe . During this period Brown worked closely with Admiral Gerhard Wagner of the German Naval Staff . Training was conducted initially in the UK on Hawker Sea Hawk s and Fairey Gannet s , and during this time Brown was allocated a personal Percival Pembroke aircraft by the Marineflieger , which , to his surprise , the German maintenance personnel took great pride in . It was , in fact , the first exclusively naval aircraft the German Navy had owned since the 1930s . Brown led the re - emergence of naval aviation in Germany to the point that in 1960 Marineflieger squadrons were integrated into NATO . Later Brown enjoyed a brief three - month period as a test pilot for the Focke - Wulf company , helping them out until they could find a replacement after the company ' s previous test pilot had been detained due to having relatives in East Germany . In the 1960s , due to his considerable experience of carrier aviation , Brown , while working at the Admiralty as Deputy Director of Naval Air Warfare , was consulted on the flight deck arrangement of the planned new UK class of aircraft carrier , the CVA - 01 , although the ship was subsequently cancelled while still on the stocks . In September 1967 came his last appointment in the Royal Navy when , as a Captain , he took command of HMS " Fulmar " , then the Royal Naval Air Station ( now RAF ) , Lossiemouth , until March 1970 . He was appointed a Naval Aide de Camp to Queen Elizabeth II on 7 July 1969 and promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1970 New Year Honours . He relinquished his appointment as Naval ADC on 27 January 1970 and retired from the Royal Navy later in 1970 . Records . He flew aircraft from Britain , the United States , Germany , Italy and Japan and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as holding the record for flying the greatest number of different aircraft . The official record is 487 , but only includes basic types . For example Captain Brown flew fourteen ( 14 ) versions of the Spitfire and Seafire and although these versions are very different they only appear once in the list . The list only includes aircraft flown by Brown as ' Captain in Command ' . Due to the special circumstances involved , he doesn ' t think that this record will ever be beaten . Credits . In his book " Wings on my sleeve " ( page 157 et seq ) , Brown records his admiration of a number of erstwhile colleagues who deserve recognition : - " I was fortunate to have such fine C . O . s as Alan Hards , Dick Ubee , Silyn Roberts , and Alan Wheeler . . . . It was always a thrill to me to meet and talk flying business with men like Geoffrey Tyson , Harald Penrose , Jeff Quill , Mutt Summers , Bill Pegg , and George Errington . All these had been heroes in my private hall of fame long before I knew them personally . . . . Geoffrey de Havilland , Bill Humble , and Alex Henshaw . . . They were men of great dash . . . Mike Lithgow , Peter Twiss , John Cunningham of Comet fame , John Derry , Neville Duke , and Roland Beamont . These are the test pilots I associate with the onset of the jet age . . . . There are many test pilots , both civilian and service , I have not mentioned , not because they were any less competent than the others , but only because they are not associated so strongly in the public mind with a particularly exciting machine or incident . " " Sometimes even such an historic occasion as the first jet flight in Britain does not carry its pilot ' s name along with it . Jerry Sayer is the example here . Whatever it was that obscured his name , wartime secrecy or the fact that he lost his life in a non - jet crash so soon afterwards , I have always felt that here was one of the ` greats ' in the game who was never accorded the high place he deserved . " " Behind the pilots are the aircraft designers , the immortal R . J . Mitchell who gave us the Spitfire , Sir Sydney Camm , R . E . Bishop , and Roy Chadwick , to name only a few . Again I can quote a great man in this field whose name should have been a household word but never was . It was the lot of Joe Smith of Supermarine ' s to follow a man who was probably the greatest of them all , R . J . Mitchell . . . " " Another group that must be mentioned are the boffins — and boffinettes . If ever I met dedicated men they were the Farnborough boffins . Aero Flight had such brilliant aerodynamicists as Morien Morgan , Handel Davies , Dai Morris , and P . A . Hufton . When I see the illustrious positions they hold in the aviation world today I wonder how often I must have held their lives in my hands and vice versa . They flew on every possible type of test flight involving the experimental work for which they were responsible . No less so did the boffinettes like Mrs . Gwen Alston , Mrs . Anne Burns — now of gliding fame — and Mrs . Dorothy Pearse , who was the first woman certificated aero - engineer in Britain and teamed up with the famous woman pilot Pauline Gower to run a private air charter company . " " For sheer inventive ingenuity the Naval Aircraft Department team , led by the genius of Lewis Boddington , was supreme . The names of Dr . Thomlinson , John Noble , Charles Crowfoot and others of this Department must go on record as those responsible for giving the Royal Navy a technical lead in aircraft carrier equipment which it still holds to this day [ 1978 ] . " " These men and women were civil servants , but they worked hours , took responsibility , and produced results far beyond what their country paid them for . To me they represent the true measure of Britain ' s greatness . " Books . Brown has written several books about his experiences , including many describing the flight characteristics of the various aircraft he flew and an autobiography , " Wings on My Sleeve " , first published in 1961 and considerably up - dated in later editions . He is also the author of dozens of articles in aviation magazines and journals . His most well - known series of articles is " Viewed from the Cockpit " which was published ( and occasionally re - published ) in the journal " Air International " . Captain Brown ' s studies of famous naval and captured enemy aircraft are refreshing and compelling reading and include some remarkable types that would otherwise remain mysterious to the aviation enthusiast . Flight review highlights in this series have included the following types : As regards his preferences Brown states ; " My favourite piston engine ( aircraft ) is the de Havilland Hornet . For the simple reason it was over - powered . This is an unusual feature in an aircraft , you could do anything on one engine , almost , that you could do on two . It was a ' hot rod Mosquito ' really , I always described it as like flying a Ferrari in the sky . " " On the jet side I was a great admirer of the F - 86 Sabre , but in particular , the Model E ( F - 86E ) which had the flying tail , and this gave me what I call the ' perfect harmony of control ' . If a pilot has this perfect harmony of control you feel you ' re part of the aeroplane and you ' re bonded with it really . You ' ve got into it and the aeroplane welcomes you and says ' thank God you ' ve come , you ' re part of me anyway ' and to fly like that is a sheer delight . " Current . Brown stopped being a pilot when he turned 70 but he still lectures . He is a regular attendee of British Rocketry Oral History Programme ( BROHP ) , where the annual presentation of the Sir Arthur Clarke Award s takes place . He was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award for 2007 . He now lives in semi - retirement in Copthorne , West Sussex , where he was interviewed by BBC4 Radio in April , 2013 . Nickname . Brown received the affectionate nickname " Winkle " from his Royal Navy colleagues . Short for " Periwinkle " , a small mollusc , the name was given to Brown because of his short ( 5ft 7in ) stature .