The exhilarating story of one of the greatest pilots in history: Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown.
‘The greatest test pilot who ever lived. A true inspiration’ TIM PEAKE
‘When you read his life story, it makes James Bond seem like a bit of a slacker’ KIRSTY YOUNG, DESERT ISLAND DISCS
In 1939 Eric Brown was on a university exchange course in Germany. The first he knew of the outbreak of the Second World War was when the Gestapo came to arrest him. They released him – not realising he was a pilot in the RAF volunteer reserve – and the rest is history.
Eric Brown joined the Fleet Air Arm and went on to be the greatest test pilot in history, flying more types of aircraft than anyone ever recorded.
During his lifetime Brown made a record-breaking 2,407 aircraft carrier landings and survived eleven plane crashes. One of Britain’s few German-speaking airmen, he went to Germany in 1945 to test the Nazi jets, interviewing (among others) Hermann Goering and Hanna Reitsch. He flew the suicidally dangerous Me 163 rocket plane and tested the first British jets. Fascinating, exhilarating and unputdownable, Wings on My Sleeve is Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown’s incredible story.
Reviews
Fascinating reading . . . Truly a "living legend" among aviation enthusiasts, his amazing life story is quite literally "stranger than fiction". If you only buy one aviation book this year, make sure it's this one
The stories beggar belief
When you read through his life story, it makes James Bond seem like a bit of a slacker
The greatest test pilot who ever lived. A true inspiration
Fascinating reading . . . Truly a "living legend" among aviation enthusiasts, his amazing life story is quite literally "stranger than fiction". If you only buy one aviation book this year, make sure it's this one
A fascinating story . . . For anyone interested in aviation, this is required reading
The greatest test pilot who ever lived. A true inspiration
A fascinating story . . . full of absorbing information and insight
Copiously illustrated, filled with insights, opinion, anecdotes and observations, this is a gem of a book
Copiously illustrated, filled with insights, opinion, anecdotes and observations, this is a gem of a book
A fascinating story . . . For anyone interested in aviation, this is required reading
When you read through his life story, it makes James Bond seem like a bit of a slacker
A fascinating story . . . full of absorbing information and insight
The stories beggar belief