Wings on My Sleeve: The fascinating autobiography of one of the world’s greatest test pilots

'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.