Wings on My Sleeve

Eric Brown was on a University of Edinburgh exchange course in Germany in 1939, and the first he knew of the war was when the Gestapo came to arrest him. They released him, not realising he was a pilot in the RAF volunteer reserve, and the rest is history. Eric Brown joined the Fleet Air Arm and went on to become the greatest test pilot in history, flying more different aircraft types than anyone else. He is the only man alive who has flown every major (and most minor) combat aircraft of the Second World War as well as the early jets.

Speaking perfect German, he went to Germany in 1945 to test the Nazi jets, interviewing, among others, Hermann Goering and Hanna Reitsch. He flew the suicidally dangerous Me 163 rocket plane and tested the first British jets. He would have been the first man to break the sound barrier, except that the British government cancelled the programme and gave the technology to America.

He is a living legend among aviation enthusiasts.

“When you read through his life story, it makes James Bond seem like a bit of a slacker-- Kirsty Young , DESERT ISLAND DISCS”

The greatest test pilot who ever lived. A true inspiration -- Tim Peake
When you read through his life story, it makes James Bond seem like a bit of a slacker -- Kirsty Young DESERT ISLAND DISCS

Now 88, Captain Brown CBE, OBE, MBE, DSC, AFC, KCVSA became a test pilot during WWII and commanded the RAE Aerodynamics Flight at Farnborough.

He played a key role in the design of an entire generation of aircraft.

Previous titles:

Wings on my Sleeve (HC Sept 06);

Wings of the Weird and Wonderful;

Duels in the Sky;

Wings of the Navy;

Wings of the Luftwaffe

Eric Brown went to Germany in 1939 on an exchange course, and his first experience of the war came when the Gestapo arrested him, not knowing he was an RAF pilot. The rest is history. He is the only man alive to have flown every major and most minor combat aircraft of the Second World War (as well as all the early jets), and has been interviewed by the top Nazis. While testing the Nazi jets in war-stricken Germany, he interviewed (among others) Hermann Goering and Hanna Reitsch. A living legend among aviation enthusiasts, his amazing life story deserves to be told in full--from crashing in front of Winston Churchill to unmasking a Neo-Nazi ring in the 1950s to his terrifying flights in primitive jets and rockets.

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