Eric "Winkle" Brown dead at 97

The holder of the record for most different types of planes flown, as well as mostf aircraft carrier landings, has died at the age of 97.

His life as a whole is remarkable.

Quote:

Brown was responsible for important “firsts” in carrier aviation, including the first carrier landing using an aircraft equipped with a tricycle undercarriage, which he thought one of the greatest advances in naval aviation, on the trials carrier Pretoria Castle on April 4 1945. He also performed the first landing of a jet aircraft on a carrier, a de Havilland Sea Vampire on the carrier Ocean on December 3 1945. ... In the 1950s during the Korean War, Brown was lent to the US Naval Test Centre at Patuxent River, Maryland, where he introduced to the US Navy the then new British concepts of the angled flight deck. It was during this period that he achieved a very large proportion of his world record number of land-ons and take-offs. The first catapult assisted take-off was while Perseus was still alongside: the wind on the day being so slight that the British decided that they would risk their pilot if the Americans would risk their aircraft. ... Brown became chief executive of the British Helicopter Advisory Board, where he thought his achievements were overlooked compared to his work as a test pilot. His vision included a nationwide network of heliports, the first of which was at Blackfriars, and he promoted the air ambulance and police helicopter services, as well as advocating the acquisition of all-weather helicopters and of simulators, and he helped found the European Helicopter Association. He received the King’s commendation for valuable service in the air and the Air Force Cross, was president of the Royal Aeronautical Society, honorary fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, a Master Pilot of Russia, and was inducted into the USN’s carrier test pilot hall of honor.

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1PQBACF