Eric Brown was a Royal Navy pilot who spent a great deal of his career test flying aircraft. Working in the UK for the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Brown's job allowed him to be involved in parts of testing of a rather incredible number of aircraft. He also did a tour at the Naval Test Center at Pax River in Maryland, offering him the opportunity to fly some American types as well.

The original part of this book has been out for many, many years, first being published by Janes back in 1980. In that book he covered the WWII types that he has flown. This book concentrates on strictly naval aircraft and in particular, carrier borne types.

From the WWII section we look at aircraft such as the Skua, Sea Hurricane, Wildcat, Swordfish and Avenger to name a few. An extraordinary number of pages are devoted to the Seafire, which should come to no real surprise to many. There are also lesser types such as the Firebrand, Roc, and Albacore.

Then we get to a section where the author test flew US types like the Banshee, Fury, and Cutlass. Not surprisingly, he had little nice to say about these types. Moving towards more modern types such as the Wyvern, Sea Venom, Buccaneer, and the Phantom, all aircraft that flew from British carrier decks back when the Royal Navy had proper aircraft carriers.

In each case, and there are 30 type covered, a history of the aircraft is provided as well as the author's experiences flying these planes. Though most of the time he was involved in the test portion of an aircraft's development, he also flew or commanded regular units and provides some insight based on these experiences. To those who have read his previous book, this one adds a great deal to that volume and is well worth picking up. For new readers, you get the chance to discover the author's opinions on the flying characteristics of a wide variety of interesting aircraft.

Throughout are a super collection of period photos of these aircraft, this one is a keeper and a book that I am positive you will very much enjoy. Highly recommended for all aviation enthusiasts.

October 2013

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