Renowned Royal Navy test pilot Eric "Winkle" Brown, aged 95, features as the 3000th castaway on BBC Radio 4's long-running Desert Island Discs on Friday 14 November at 9:00am. If you are unable to listen at that time it will be available on BBC Radio iPayer for several weeks.

 

Eric Brown is the Fleet Air Arm's most decorated pilot and holds the record for the most flight deck landings, including being the first person to make a deck take-off and landing in a jet aircraft.

He is perhaps better known for having interrogated Hermann Goering, Enrst Heinkel and Willie Messerchmitt and flown many of Germany’s WW11 aircraft for assessment purposes, including the rocket fuelled Me163 Komet.

 

The show has already been recorded and presenter Kirsty Young described Brown as "the perfect castaway" to celebrate the 3,000th edition. "Talking to him about his remarkable, dare-devil life was like touching history. A charming and twinkly man," she said.