Eric Brown.

This is coolbert:

Eric "Winkle" Brown.

From that era primarily of the Second World War [WW2] and beyond that the record of this man superlative, without peer.

Eric Brown (pilot).

"Captain Eric Melrose "Winkle" Brown . . . was a British Royal Navy officer and test pilot who flew 487 different types of aircraft, more than anyone else in history. He was also the most-decorated pilot in the history of the Royal Navy."

"Brown holds the world record for the most aircraft carrier deck take-offs and landings performed (2,407 and 2,271 respectively) and achieved several "firsts" in naval aviation, including the first landings on an aircraft carrier of a twin-engine aircraft, an aircraft with a tricycle undercarriage, a jet propelled aircraft, and rotary-wing aircraft."

"He also flew almost every category of Royal Navy and RAF aircraft: glider, fighter, bomber, airliner, amphibian, flying boat and helicopter. During World War II, he also flew many types of captured German aircraft, including new jets and rocket planes. He was a pioneer of jet technology into the post-war era."

See the BBC documentary, Eric Brown and his career the subject. I recommend highly without qualification or reservation.

Comments:

* Brown having flown and describing the German Me-262 as the most formidable combat warplane of WW2!

* Brown having flown and describing the German Me-163 as the only plane that flew him and not the other way around!

* Brown I am reasonably able [??] to infer worked for the British Secret Intelligence Service [SIS] in Germany prior to the start of WW2

* Brown as a fluent speaker of German personally interrogating Hermann Goering, Kramer and Irma Grese in the aftermath of the war. That latter two active participants in war crimes and atrocity as perpetrated at the Buchenwald concentration camp.

It doesn't get much heavier than Eric Brown. Indeed, if ever for anyone!

coolbert.