Brown flew 487 types of aircraft, more than any other human being, a record that will almost certainly never be broken given modern safety restrictions. Testing German experimental jets captured at the end of the Second World War, there was sometimes no technical manual to guide him. When he died in 2016, aged 97, aviators across the world mourned. He was also touchy, egotistical and funny – all of which is apparent in Paul Beaver’s excellent new biography, Winkle: The Extraordinary Life of Britain’s Greatest Pilot. An incredible life ... Brown took a secret to the grave that makes his story all the more remarkable The Sun The first indication, he says, that some details “didn’t add up” came following Brown’s death in 2016, aged 97. “After he died his family gave me all the papers,” recalls Beaver. “I was the first non-family member they called when he was taken ill in 2016 because we were close.

The subtitle for this biography of Eric “Winkle” Brown describes him as “Britain’s greatest pilot”. Winkle may not be a household name, but he was a versatile and brave airman who flew more kinds of aircraft than any other pilot in history, and won so many accolades that King George VI once groaned “What, you again?” as he presented him with another. Beaver recounts the story of a man he regarded as a mentor in unshowy but fascinating detail, and restores a British hero to his rightful place. The Winding Stair In 1945, Brown and his colleague Anthony F Martindale, were tasked with bringing two Sikorsky R-4B helicopters from RAF Speke to RAF Farnborough. Although they’d never flown these aircraft before, they were simply handed a manual by the American master sergeant who said, “Here’s your instructor”. Paul Beaver knew Eric Brown for nearly 40 years. In fact, Eric initially inspired Paul’s writing career, offering him expert advice on aircraft carriers and naval aviation for Ark Royal, his first book. The collaboration later included Eric’s foreword for Paul’s best-selling Spitfire People. As a well as being author, Paul has been a war reporter, journalist with Jane’s, a Parliamentary advisor and served for 27 years in the Territorial Army rising to the rank of Colonel in the Army Air Corps (V). Eric 'Winkle' Brown was Britain's greatest pilot. His extraordinary flying career saw him fight in the Battle of Britain, narrowly escape death on a torpedoed aircraft carrier, achieve a litany of new records and firsts as a test pilot, and fly more kinds of aircraft than any other pilot in history. Brown rubbed shoulders with myriad people throughout his life, from “the Royal family to Shirley Bassey to astronauts to German war criminals”. He even performed on stage with the legendary Glenn Miller Orchestra in late 1944.

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It was always agreed I would have access to his papers and there were 12 big boxes. That took a long time to go through. He is a great record-breaker – 487 types of aeroplanes flown – no-one will ever do that again,” says Beaver. Brown flight-tested Luftwaffe aircraft captured by the Allies and was at the forefront of helping to pioneer ground-breaking jet engine technology and chase ever-faster speeds. Further research into official records called into question other aspects of Eric’s early life. I started to see from the where the character of Eric was born, developed and blossomed. He was every bit the hard-bitten professional and the martinet in the beginning and then I saw how the national treasure aspect came about too. The next problem was keeping the word count down. That meant re-writing and editing – author’s hate to cut words but my publisher, Rowland White came up with a solution – detailed captions on a hundred photographs, many not seen before. Small in stature but immense in reputation and talent, there was more to Eric 'Winkle' Brown than met the eye.

Brown began his active war service in 1941, flying Martlets off the carrier HMS Audacity until its sinking in December. In 1943, he switched to test-pilot duties, an activity as dangerous as combat. None of this put the slightest dent in Brown’s determination to accept every risk on offer. They included flying the experimental Messerschmitt Me 163, which could climb to 30,000 feet in two-and-a-half minutes, and whose hugely combustible fuel had accounted for several deaths. Brown seemed a shoo-in to join the Royal Air Force during the Second World War but there was a hitch – when the 19-year-old aspiring pilot reported to the recruiting office in Edinburgh, he was told sign-ups were at capacity and there was a three-month wait. Now, drawing on previously unseen documents and unfettered access to Winkle's own personal archive, Paul Beaver uncovers the complex and enigmatic man behind the legend - the real story of Britain's greatest pilot. He carried, to his dying day, pieces of plexiglass lodged in his cheek and mouth that they couldn’t operate on and remove,” says Beaver. “To land on an aircraft carrier that is moving 60ft up and down, whilst wounded and with one eye inoperable because it is coated in blood, is quite remarkable.”

Paul Beaver

Eric said the only thing that got him was when it came to being rescued. As he climbed up the side of the warship, he banged his legs because of the swell and took the skin off.”

As Paul said to us, he wanted this book to be about the man, rather than the aircraft, and it’s an extraordinary tale of a talented but complicated man who served his country in many ways. He learned that there was a shortage of pilots in the Royal Navy and so, in 1939, Brown joined the Fleet Air Arm and began his illustrious flying career. In the 40 years that I knew our greatest pilot, I always called him Eric, by the way, but of course the world knows him as Winkle, the shortest pilot in the Fleet Air Arm. When Eric was taken ill in 2016, I was the first outside the immediate family he called and so I feel the bond between us was strong.

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During the war, Brown’s fluency in German and expertise on aircraft made him valuable in interviewing many important figures, including captured German pilots – gathering crucial information about their aircraft, tactics and training. As a fellow airman, he knew the right questions to ask, consequently gaining invaluable insights. So, who was the real Eric “Winkle” Brown? Here, Beaver shines a light on feats of heroism and derring-do, as well as a markedly different origin story to the one publicly known until now. Beaver has long pondered how these connections to Germany came about. “I can’t work it out and the family have no idea,” he says. “Near Galashiels there was a big German prisoner-of-war camp [during the First World War]. The big revelation is that Brown's origins were far more humble than he ever admitted. And in the class-conscious Royal Navy, that was not a career-enhancing situation. Especially when you are a Naval Aviator, the sort of person who had limited career prospects to begin with in the RN. (I will state categorically that had Brown flown for the USN, he would have made Rear Admiral. The only question is whether he would have retired as Commander, Naval Air Test Center - or as Commander, Naval Air Systems Command.) He remembers he had bought a silk nightdress in Tangier for his fiancée, Lynn. So, he stuffs that inside his tunic to save it, which, of course, adds another layer of insulation. Then he gets into the water and starts helping other people.