Randy Haskin wrote:
I was more interested in reading on topics on the nuts-and-bolts of how to operate a big piston, tailwheel warbird in the current environment.
Bumping this thread again. I've been using Eric's books a fair amount recently, and I've been thinking about Randy's question and how they might apply. While I appreciate the point about ''current environment', there's something more important that Brown provides.
As far as I know, he's the only trained test pilot who has flown all the major W.W.II types, bombers, fighters, transports, seaplanes, army co-op, jets, rocket (unpowered) helicopters, gliders, autogiros and experimental. And to cap that he's the only person to have written about each and put it in the public domain through these books. I've also not ever heard any meaningful criticism of his evaluations.
We continually have the question of 'was the Hellcat better than the Spitfire, or Zero' etc etc. Only
one man can answer those questions across the spectrum of W.W.II aviation, and we are lucky that he's both got combat time (he flew Wildcats on the Atlantic run) an insight into many background aspects (familiar with Germany both pre- and post- war, time at Pax River, testing the American Navy's best) so he talks the language.
In science one is often looking for 'the common denominator' to benchmark the experiments. In warbird terms that
has to be Brown. While he wasn't concerned with operating modern warbirds, his evaluations are based on the actual aircraft in their era - so as they were designed and built, with armour, armament, and military fitting, and not with any civillian mods. While that might detract from advice how to fly this particular civilian warbird, which would you rather have - advice from a pilot who flew the original machine and was trained to evaluate it and write it up, or the modern pilot who knows that machine inside out, but has never flown it with guns, and Govt Furnished Equip? (Well, both of course. But one remains useful forever, while the latter is a lot more specific.) While several people have written well about warbird flying (and we want more, and what we've got is good) it cannot compare to Brown's work.
To recap:
His autobiography is 'Wings on my Sleeve' and talks about him being ejected from Germany in 1939 at the start of the war, through training, fighting Fw-200s in convoys, and into testing. It's great background, and a good read, but doesn't go into type specific info.
There are several editions of most of these but the author (usually Captain Eric Brown) and titles don't change:
Wings of the LuftwaffeWhat you'd expect.
Wings of the Navy.Includes many US types as well as British. Often from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Wings of the weird & wonderful Vol I
Wings of the weird & wonderful Vol IIAgain, like it says. All sorts, from all over the world.
Testing for CombatActually more a collection of all the types missing from the previous books.
For those who only read American:
http://www.au.af.mil/au/goe/eagle_bios/ ... _2007.htmlOr:
Quote:
Having taken his first flight at the age of eight with his father, a former pilot in the Royal Flying Corps, at the controls, in 1939 Eric Brown started to learn to fly seriously while in the UAS at EdinburghUniversity. Graduating with a MA in German, he went into the Fleet Air Arm and stayed there for the next 31 years, flying no less than 487 aircraft types - a record unlikely ever to be beaten.
In 1941, he claimed two FW 200s while flying Martlets of No. 802 Squadron from HMS Audacity. Following a period on trials work involving Sea Hurricanes and Seafires and a stint as a Deck Landing Instructor he was posted to become the Chief Naval Test Pilot at RAE Farnborough, subsequently flying all types of allied naval aircraft.
There are many outstanding events in his career, perhaps the most notable is making the world's first landing of a jet aircraft - a Sea Vampire - on the deck of an aircraft carrier, HMS Ocean, on 3 December 1945. He also has the (perhaps unique) experience of deliberately landing a Sea Vampire wheels-up on an aircraft carrier as a test assessment of the use of an inflatable mattress in lieu of arrester wires. He also holds the world record for the most deck landings and most catapult launches of any pilot.
In 1946, as CO of the Enemy Aircraft Flight at Farnborough he became heavily involved in the flight testing and assessment of German, Italian and Japanese aircraft, in all flying 55 individual types, ranging from the prone pilot Berlin B9, the push-pull Do335, and the remarkable little Heinkel He162 ‘Volksjager’ to the highly innovative German combat types entering the Luftwaffe inventory towards the end of the war.These also included the twin axial flow jet-engined Me262 and the Me163 ‘flying bomb’ (he did one clandestine flight with its unstable fuel of hydrogen peroxide/hydrazine hydrate in methanol). He also flew compression ignition (diesel) engines in the two-engined Do18, the three-engined Bv26 and the six-engined Bv222 flying-boat. As a German linguist, he interrogated many of the leading German aviation personalities, including Willy Messerschmitt, Ernst Heinkel and Hanna Reitsch.
Later, he resumed flying with No 802 Squadron on Sea Furies, spent two years at the US Navy Test Centre at PatuxentRiver, commanded No 804 Squadron (Sea Hawks), was Commander Air at RNAS Brawdy, Naval Attache in Bonn from 1958 to 1960, served at the Admiralty as Deputy Director of Naval Air Warfare, and commanded RNAS Lossiemouth.
Retiring in 1970 he began a second career in the field of helicopter aviation. Here, his posts included being Chief Executive of the British Helicopter Advisory Board and Chief Executive and Vice-President of the European Helicopter Association, based in Amsterdam.
A Past President of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Commander Eric Brown holds the distinction of having been awarded successively the MBE, OBE and CBE, together with the DSC and AFC. He is the author of some 36 published books, mostly about aviation.
Eric Brown is one of the few remaining flying legends and, in the words of Hawker Aircraft Chief Test Pilot, Bill Humble, ‘in an era of outstanding test pilots, Winkle was simply the best.’
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=250925
If you really want to know how they really flew, this is the stuff. More from others is great, but I'd suggest the Captain's books are essential reading.
Also relates to this thread:
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... hp?t=17511
Regards,
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
