Wings of the Navy: Testing British and US Carrier Aircraft - Hardcover

Brown, Eric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1902109325 ISBN 13: 9781902109329

Publisher: Hikoki, 2013

Synopsis

Carrier aircraft, since their beginning, have been a very special kind of machine and demand something equally special of the men who flew them. Landing on a pitching, bucking deck of a carrier, or catapulting over a plunging bow, shipboard aircraft and their pilots had to be exceptional.

Often, the real characteristics of these assorted aircraft lie forgotten in the annals of time but Eric 'Winkle' Brown, the first naval officer to head the elite Aerodynamics Flight at Farnborough, records his cockpit experiences testing British and American carrier aircraft.

Having enjoyed one of the most extraordinary careers in flying, Eric 'Winkle' Brown places on record the flying characteristics, good bad and indifferent, of a myriad of aircraft from the Fairey Swordfish and Albacore , Grumman Avenger and Panther to the Supermarine Seafire, Douglas Dauntless, North American Skyray, de Havilland Sea Vixen and Blackburn Buccaneer.

Highly illustrated with cutaways, photographs and color profiles, Carrier Testing American & British Aircraft (Wings of the Navy) makes a valuable contribution to aviation history and keeps the memory of these diverse and absorbing aircraft alive.

About this title

About the Author:

Captain Eric Brown had a 31-year career in the Royal Navy, and is the Fleet Air Arm's most decorated pilot.

After a distinguished operational tour flying from Britain's first escort carrier, he was selected as a test pilot in 1942. In his test flying career he has flown a world record 490 basic types of aircraft, and made a world record 2,407 aircraft carrier landings in fixed-wing aircraft. In 1995 he was inducted into the US Navy's Carrier Aviation Test Pilot Hall of Honor, the only non-American to have received this accolade.

In 2000 he joined a very select group, when he was invited to deliver the Lindbergh Memorial Lecture at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, and along with Neil Armstrong was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Edinburgh University in 2008.

Now in his nineties, he still lectures regularly in Britain, Europe and America.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hikoki
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1902109325
• ISBN 13: 9781902109329
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272