Test Pilot Close Calls With Eric "Winkle" Brown. From the SR.A/1 To The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet
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- Опубликовано: 10 апр 2023
- Close Calls Episode 1 with Eric "Winkle" Brown. Accidents during testing aircraft, including the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, Saunders-Roe SR.A/1, de Havilland DH.108, or flying into a thunderstorm.
Captain Brown CBE, DSC, AFC, HON FRAES, RN is the British test pilot that flew 487 different aircraft, not including variations!
Brown holds the world record for the most aircraft carrier deck take-offs and landings performed (2,407 and 2,271 respectively) 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.
Capt. Eric "Winkle" Brown's playlist: • Eric Winkle Brown's Ai...
Episode 1: • Test Pilot Close Calls...
Episode 2: TBA
Episode 3: TBA
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 in the postwar era.
Brown was born in Leith, near Edinburgh, in the United Kingdom. His father was a former balloon observer and pilot in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and Brown 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 took him to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Hermann Göring had recently announced the existence of the Luftwaffe, and Brown and his father met and were invited to join social gatherings by members of the newly disclosed organization. At one of these meetings, Ernst Udet, a former World War I fighter ace, was fascinated to make the acquaintance of Brown senior, a former RFC pilot, and offered to take his son Eric up flying with him. Eric eagerly accepted the German's offer and after he arrived at the appointed airfield at Halle, he was soon flying in a two-seat Bücker Jungmann. He recalled the incident nearly 80 years later on the BBC radio program Desert Island Discs
You talk about aerobatics - we did everyone I think and I was hanging on to my tummy. So, when we landed, and he gave me the fright of my life because we approached upside-down and then he rolled out just in time to land, he said to me as I got out of the cockpit, slapped me between the shoulder-blades, and gave me the old WW1 fighter pilots' greeting, Hals- und Beinbruch, which means broken neck and broken legs but that was their greeting. But he said to me, you'll make a fine fighter pilot - do me two favors: learn to speak German fluently and learn to fly.
During the Olympic Games Brown witnessed Hitler shaking hands with Jesse Owens.
In 1937, Brown left the Royal High School and entered the University of Edinburgh, 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 under the sponsorship of the Foreign Office, having been invited to attend the 1938 Automobile Exhibition by Udet, by then a Luftwaffe major general. He there 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, whom he also had briefly met in 1936.
In the meantime, Brown had been selected to take part as an exchange student at the Schule Schloss Salem, located on the banks of Lake Constance, and it was while there in Germany that Brown was woken up by 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 afterward, Brown was arrested by the SS. However, after three days' incarceration, they merely escorted Brown in his MG Magnette sports car to the Swiss border, saying they allowed him to keep the car because they "had no spares for it".
On returning to the United Kingdom then at war, he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve before subsequently joining the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve as a Fleet Air Arm pilot, where he was posted to 802 Naval Air Squadron, initially serving on the first escort carrier, HMS Audacity, converted and thus named in July 1941. He flew one of the carrier's Grumman Martlets. During his service on board Audacity, he shot down two Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor maritime patrol aircraft, using head-on attacks to exploit the blind spot in their defensive armament.
#aircraft #testpilot #airplane 
Наука
Capt. Eric "Winkle" Brown's playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLBI4gRjPKfnOzI39MG3ILpQkxPpgoZk4n
Please do more videos like this we these great pilots of yesteryear. There are not many of them left!
I would love to see ret. Col. Bud Anderson interview like this about his test pilot days?
@@jeffallen3382 We have a few videos with Bud Anderson on the channel
@@Dronescapes thank you, I'll look for them.
@@jeffallen3382 here is a couple: ruclips.net/user/livemuiAFLNcE1U and ruclips.net/video/_cyEeyDT52c/видео.html
He was one of the best....Thanks
Shoe🇺🇸
These days they label TV and film stars as "legends." They are not. This gentleman is a true legend. In fact I would go as far as to say that Eric Brown redefines the word.
This man was one of the greatest aviators of all time. The amount of carrier landings and the variety of aircraft he did them in is enough to see him among the best but then all the test flights & his pre war history with the Germans that made his position during the war even more strenuous? Just an amazing life this man lived. Truly a national treasure to the UK & Scotland.
For my money he is the greatest. He easily stands with Doolittle, Yeager, Crossfield, any of the NASA people etc etc and had many totally unique experiences. The number of types, many of them death traps, the number of carrier landings will never be equalled. People will never agree on who was the best at anything but he has my vote.
A truly great man, Commander Brown deserved a knighthood far more than most but he was just an ordinary man who achieved all his successes by his personal skill and courage, God Bless him and may he rest in peace
Then they give a knighthood to Lewis Hamilton and Jimmy Savile
I grew up through the 1970s in awe of people like Eric Brown and his ilk. As I get older I am made more and more painfully aware of the inescapable fact that no generation since (including my own) can hold a candle to men of this stature.
Well, not enough planes to fly/try these days?!
^But YES! A bloody ballsy* person Eric was...
*can you say that in 2024?
The real "Flying Scotsman", if ever there was.
His life was so full, yet he was so humble about all he experienced. In his 90's you can see how he still orders his thoughts as he logically tells his stories. You can see him filtering out much detail so that it can be understood by lay people. A rare, great man!!
👍
If there's one ability a test pilot surely has to have, I'd imagine it must be to very, *very* rapidly prioritise all of one's thoughts.
Probably the greatest test pilot of all time.
No 'probably' about it, undeniably the greatest test pilot of all time!
"It's quite distressing" British understatement at its best.
Incredible man. Mind and memory still razor sharp into his elderly years.
Eric is amazing, this is one of the best flight crew interviews around! What a legend.
He may have been short, but this man is an absolute giant among aviators. He may not be as famous as Lindberg, Earhart or Alcock and Brown, but in may ways he achieved more than all of them combined. RIP Winkle, an extraordinary man.
Strapping himself into a captured Komet?? Absolutely amazing man!! 👍🏽
Absolutely
The Komet was so dangerous, even just filling the damned fuel tanks whilst it sat quietly on the runway could basically kill everyone instantly if you screwed up. In addition to the sheer toxicity of the propellants, there was an incredibly elaborate procedure for carefully approaching the plane from two separate directions in two separate propellant tankers that had to always be far, far away from each other, and extensively hosing down the plane, the refuelling equipment and the entire area before, between and after each each step of the operation, to make sure the hypergolic fuel and oxidiser couldn't ever possibly come in contact with each other, because if they did they would immediately combust. You would *not* want to try to land the thing with even a drop of that stuff still in the tanks.
In the early 90's I had a question about the flight characteristics of the 163, since I understood he had flown several. I wrote a letter addressed to him through The Imperial war Museum in London, expecting perhaps a form letter in reply. To my surprise, I received a handwritten note on his personal stationary describing the stall characteristics and control response of the aircraft flown by him at the time in Britian as a glider. A truly considerate man willing to share knowledge in a small way that was helpful to others.
@@bernieschiff5919 Impressive story. Eric Brown was a great person. Did you watch his biography on the channel, and his other videos? ruclips.net/video/PSRAdZzRycc/видео.html
We will also feature, in the coming weeks, some never seen before interviews with him.
His first flight was with a certain Ernst Udet . He made Eric promise to learn to fly and learn German .
Eric did both . His ability to speak German was invaluable in interviews with German prisoners /aviation scientists.
His ability to fly ,speaks for itself. Udet was one of the few pilots that could be mentioned in the same breath as Eric Brown .✈️✈️✈️
One of his lesser known 'close calls' was when he was so exhilarated with the new Seafire L IIC variant that he looped it through the spans of the Forth Bridge. The RAF got the blame for it since the public were not yet aware the navy had Spitfires!
I'm so glad that some people had the fourthought of mind to get so much information from him while he was still alive.
Tarzan, we have some exclusive interviews coming that were never shown before. They are from his biography documentary, but they are the original RAW interviews, digitized from Beta!
Priceless.
Did you watch his biography? Here is a playlist with all his videos, so far: ruclips.net/video/PSRAdZzRycc/видео.html
A remarkable and humble man. What a life !
I once read . " There are young careless pilots , but no old careless pilots " . God bless Eric .
Surely one of the greatest British pilots and should be given a knighthood. People talk about bravery but this men tops them all.
I am very impressed with his command of detail from these events 50, 60 years ago. Airspeed, mach numbers, altitudes, cycles, g loads, all available to his quick recall. Intelligence, courage, and humility. In this day of preening mediocrities it is refreshing to be reminded that that one can live a life of significance, with dignity, and the have the class to let your story stand on its own. No strutting or embellishment, just a calm recollection of the events.
I suppose the fact that the events are legitimately terrifying and life threatening reduces the need for hyperbole. A class act all the way, I am so glad he survived, it is wonderful that he has such a sharp mind to share his life with us.
Did you watch his biography? We have a playlist about Eric Brown, and you can also find the documentary about him. It is very interesting: ruclips.net/video/PSRAdZzRycc/видео.html
I can think of no one who could do what this man did!
Surely the greatest aviator of all time!
His records are probably impossible to beat
@@Dronescapes A us navy pilot was ordered to exceed Captain Brown's record, in the 50s I think. Gave up at about 1,500 take-off/landings.
☘👿
@@johnconlon9652 do you remember his name?
@@Dronescapes Sorry, I don't remember.
@@johnconlon9652 Thanks anyway!
An amazingly talented test pilot, he also had, as was essential, his fair share of luck. His book makes for fascinating reading. On one occasion he'd been responsible for a number of tests being carried out on a German aircraft, a 'push/pull' design, that's two engines in line, one pulling the other, behind pushing.. he'd flown a number of tests, no problems, then, having been ordered to hand the test schedule over to one of his test pilots he was called away to begin test flights on carrier landings with jet aircraft. The day after he left, the pilot designated to take his place on the German aircraft got it airborne, shortly afterward, the pilot was killed when the rear engine exploded. That would have been 'Winkle'.
A truly remarkable life. Can't recommend his autobiography enough, a crackin' read with lots of pictures. Oh, he ran into a UFO...
So wonderful to have these interviews preserved for us and available to watch. Thank you so much for posting!!
You are welcome George. Did you see his playlist? I would absolutely watch his biography, it is quite amazing: ruclips.net/video/PSRAdZzRycc/видео.html
What a guy. He must be one of the greatest aviators of all time. Might even be the greatest.
Incredible man. The video is uplifting and inspirational. Makes you proud
Agreed! Did you see his playlist? I would absolutely watch his biography, it is quite amazing: ruclips.net/video/PSRAdZzRycc/видео.html
@@Dronescapes it’s simply mind blowing. It’s beyond belief unless you knew the man actually existed and had done all of that.
What a life
Capt. Eric "Winkle" Brown is a legend. What more to say?
He was, and he will forever be
What a life he had.
R.I.P., Winkle -- you done good...👍
An incredible human being and true a national treasure.
Indeed Stuart!
And yet B liar got the knighthood!
A truly and amazing man / pilot....truthful to the nth degree....where have we (the UK) honoured him and his test pilot brethren? all schools should be showing this history of the greatest heroes. .......What a Man...
Having read many autobiographies of wartime pilots it seems amazing luck is the key to survival. Eric had this in spades.
What an amazing man.
👍👍
What a man.
Interesting/informative/entertaining. Excellent photography job enabling viewers to better understand what the test pilot was describing. Class A research project!!!
Dads CO at Fulmar! Not only a great commander, but a genuinely nice guy all round.
What an incredible man !
👍
I would respectfully disagree with Captain Brown that he has a "small" stature. I would say he is in fact a giant among men.
Awesome man, embodied with enough courage for a hundred, or more. God bless.
They don't make them like this anymore. What a guy.....
loved reading his books when i was a kid
Great person
Thank you for posting!
You are welcome Leo
another great video with this amazing MAN
Another excellent video featuring the legendary Capt Brown. Thanks DroneScapes 😊👍
Thank you Mike
@@Dronescapes you're welcome DroneScapes
Nice, his statement of health and safety, but knowing the aircraft intimately probably saved his life.
FANTASTIC STUFF !
Glad you enjoyed it
Very interesting, Brown's injunction that test pilots (with their typical "kick the tires, light the fires, and the last one up's a sissy" attitude) get to know as much as they could about the science and engineering behind the principles of flight and the design of their aircraft.
A very great man.
Hero of heroes.
"The sequence of events you just could not cater for."
In his second segment, Winkle Brown discusses why the Spitfire was used as a test aircraft in CB turbulence; ie because it's wings were stressed for 10G's. The online Spitfire naysayers should take note of that.
What a gent!
His comments on the hazards of being tall and ejecting reminded me of Ted Williams, in his great autobiography My Turn At Bat- flying as John Glen's wingman in Korea , his F9F was hit and set afire by flak; urged to eject, the 6'3" Williams, convinced his legs would be cut off, refused, flying home in a blazing plane and enduring a hellish high speed belly landing that he thought would never end- but escaped unscathed.(Williams' honesty is truly refreshing- and at times hilarious- he never resorts to false patriotism, but instead never stops bellyaching about the lousy hand-me down equipment he and his fellow Marine aviators had to endure, not to mention the lousy coal stove in the barracks he had to endure(never mind the Marine grunts who were literally freezing to death outside at the front.)
It is one thing being brave when you don't know the dangers. God often saves you the FIRST time, only. But this officer knew the dangers and still did it to save future pilots lives who may not have his skill level. That is way way beyond brave. I do not have the words.
When men were men...
I Cant imagine Captain Brown with blue hair wearing a twinset and pearls can you?
There was this old story about a Kommet pilot who survived, whom was asked to show how the plane works he said "Are you just as crazy as Hitler & Stalin combined, give me a gun and let me shoot myself the be cooked alive"
If you want to stay alive as a test pilot, you must be willing to talk to the Boffins! True Dat! 😉
Keeping attention on the artificial horizon and staying level ? Absolutely, and it's all you've got anyway; the pressure instruments are usually erratic due to turbulence induced pressure changes even using alternate static - or so I found ☹
Capt Brown getting his legs trapped by the broken Me163 skid ? He probably though that .. 'this should be a job for Douglas Bloody Bader not me !'
I was sure he would say ‚luck‘ as the second reason. To be honest he was lucky in a number of Occasions. Just take his own example here ‚Unfortunately the 2nd wing parachute didn‘t open‘.
That flying boat had the powerful Metrovick F.2/4 axial flow engines (4000 lbf) that werer far superior in performance to the Whittle engines.
As you may know, axial turbojets were riddled with insurmountable issues until the mid-50s, and that includes the infamous Jumo engines that powered the Me 262.
Axial turbojets were, for a long time, unreliable and fragile, making them not viable for operational purposes (the Germans made a desperate attempt at that),
Perhaps you are not aware that Whittle's centrifugal solution was precisely devised for that very reason...In 1929, therefore a decade before WW2.
Unfortunately, Griffith, the appointed judge of his work, on behalf of the Air Ministry, dismissed his brilliant project and delayed it by 6 (endless) years until a group of private investors funded it in 1935. It took Whittle less than two years to create the first working turbojet in the world, in April 1937, well ahead of his German counterpart, Hans Von Ohain who not only had access to Whittle's work all along but was also fully funded by an aircraft manufacturer, Mr. Heinkel.
It so happens that Griffith was incidentally the author of a seminal paper on axial compressors in 1926, so you can easily deduct that he had every interest in derailing Whittle.
Whittle also achieved his goal with a ridiculous amount of funding, a mere £200,000 in today's money. Remarkable!
Obviously, it is easy to deduct that the Allies could have had a less powerful turbojet, but a reliable one, and most importantly one very easy to develop, before the beginning of the war, not at the end. But that wasn't to be.
As a reminder, Whittle's turbojet powered not only the first commercial aircraft in the world, but also the first military jet to fly on U.S. soil, and the first U.S. operational jet fighter, the P-80 in Korea, which battled the formidable MiG-15, also powered by a reverse-engineered Whittle engine (RR Nene).
Whittle's engine was the first turbojet for both G.E. and Pratt & Whitney as well.
Not bad for a young man who was ignored, ridiculed, and so broke that he did not have £4 to renew his patent, wouldn't you agree?
By the way, in his thesis, he also theorized the advantages of pressurization, whereas someone like Von Ohain, for example, was completely oblivious to.
He was an absolute genius, well ahead of his time. He just wanted his country to have the perfect transitional engine, at the perfect time, in the perfect place.
His biggest mistake was not to be born into the establishment.
I urge you to watch his biography: ruclips.net/video/G0T4-XG612Q/видео.html
We also have his exclusive interviews in other videos, and soon even Von Ohain's never released before interviews.
@@Dronescapes you've certainly done some homework. Not to take away from Whittle, but like any new tech, the axial flow engine had to start somewhere, but it lacked some refinements and improved metallurgy. The centrifugal engine was a stop gap solution and the F-80 in Korea was quickly replaced by the F-86 (1949) with the axial flow GE engine (or Canadian Orenda axial flow engine). USN was flying axial flow jets in the 40's.
The Metrovick turbojet became the Sapphire of course, and powered many of the earlier jets. Axial flow was of course the more efficient turbojet/turbofan and likewise would have been a WWII player given investment of time and $$.
Had the germans followed their original schedule and had access to strategic materials, their axial flow engines would have further dominated the centrifugal ones. It was nice to see the Brits not so far behind though and certainly well ahead of GE and Westinghouse.
Have you seen the Metrovick engine at the aft end of the Lancaster in June 1943, then powering the Meteor to new speeds in Nov '43 ?
One should still wonder what would have happened to Whittle's engine if he had not been delayed (and virtually broke) for 6 endless years, from 1929 to 1935.
You can argue that Britain would have probably not been able to build a great airframe, lacking the German knowledge they had thanks to their amazing wind tunnels, but they would have had a massive advantage when it came to jet engines, also considering how much easier it was to develop the centrifugal turbojet vs. the axial one, or how infinitely more reliable it was at the time.
If you consider what Whittle achieved with comical funding, how long it took him once he had the money vs. what the Germans invested after the first flight, how many companies worked on it (BWM, Junkers, and Heinkel), and what they achieved at the end of WW2 (unreliable, short-lived engines).
I am aware that they had to rush out the F-86 to combat the MiG-15, but it was more about the irony of both aircraft using the same derived engine. Obviously, the MiG had the upper hand (swept wings?).
We are working on a documentary on the Lancaster + Metrovick, very interesting!
By the way, Metrovick also opened its doors to the U.S. during WW2.
Interestingly the German engines proved to be almost totally useless after the war, except for the French, and their squadron of German engineers working on it (120 people I believe)
It took them several years, radical modifications, and the help of a U.S. company to make those axial engines properly work.
Materials were only one of the many issues that had, although it is always cited as the main, and often sole issue.
The Czech Air Force also tried to make sense of them after the war, as they had been assembling Me 262 for the Germans, but like the Soviets, they also gave up and ended up using the Whittle clones as well.
It is safe to say that during the war Britain had no real interest in wasting resources on an unproven new engine, and it is interesting to note that they even issued a moratorium on R&D in the 30s, which affected Whittle, but also Griffith, his nemesis. That is how little they cared at the time for mainly strategic reasons.
They had more important issues to think of, as the threat of an invasion was looming.
@@Dronescapes there was no threat of invasion in 1940, but the race for piston engine performance was certainly at the forefront.
Beyond bravery? This plane has just killed somebody and we want to know why…could you fly it a do exactly what he was doing just before he died?’
British mensch
The typing sound effect is incredibly loud compared the rest of the video making it unwatchable..