Today's Desert Island Discs

[Deleted member 49549]

Really interesting man on today - former Royal Navy test pilot Eric "Winkle" Brown.

As a naval pilot you are sent off into the "big blue yonder", says Brown. And you are "not sure where your carrier is - maybe a hundred miles away somewhere in the ocean". Some planes never found their way back, lost out at sea because the carrier could not reveal its position.

Brown says it was a game of Russian roulette as at one stage "we had one incident every nine landings".

When landing on a carrier, "you are essentially aiming for a small lay-by in the middle of a large lake", explains Bowman. "It is a three-dimensional problem through a fog, with none of the same visual references you get on land. It is one of the most demanding tasks you can do as a pilot."

Any kind of landing was difficult, but designers had yet to fit planes to the task. "People didn't really understand what it took to make a naval aircraft in those days. We now know it can be done because Eric managed it for the first time," says Tremelling.

The American Navy were said to have given one man the specific job of breaking Brown's record. "To his everlasting credit he got up to 1,600 and then had a nervous breakdown," says Brown.

Fear is something test pilots have to deal with on a regular basis. Bowman says that they look for pilots who can "compartmentalise the job at hand from the rest of your emotions".

But for Brown fear was never an issue. "I react almost the opposite. If things are really difficult I go ice cold and my brain seems to go up a gear."

 

[Tringa]

Just been reading about him on the BBC Magazine site. He is a remarkable man.

However, would have thought the BBC should know how many records guests can take to the desert island
Towards the end of the page it says, ""Castaways" are allowed seven discs, one book (plus the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare) and one luxury"


Dave

 

[BT Bob]

However, would have thought the BBC should know how many records guests can take to the desert island
Towards the end of the page it says, ""Castaways" are allowed seven discs...

Cutbacks due to austerity measures?

I missed this so will catch it on iPlayer.... Thanks to the OP for the head's-up