YEOVILTON LIFE: Official opening for Search and Rescue exhibition at Fleet Air Arm Museum

THE greatest naval aviator of modern times, Captain Eric “Winkle” Brown, was joined earlier today (Sunday, August 2, 2015) by TV presenter Jules Hudson to officially open the latest exhibition at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at RNAS Yeovilton.

The exhibition – Saved! 100 years of Royal Navy Search and Rescue – has already been on display at the museum, but it was today when it was given a special official opening as part of a family day.

Captain Eric “Winkle” Brown, 96-years-young, a strong supporter of the Fleet Air Arm Museum, was on hand to co-sign a new book Royal Navy Search and Rescue: A Centenary Celebration with author and curator of naval aircraft David Morris.

PHOTO - TOP: Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown, centre, with TV presenter Jules Hudson, right, and author and naval curator David Morris at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at NRAS Yeovilton.

PHOTO - RIGHT: A bronze bust of Captain Brown during his younger days with the Fleet Air Arm - on display within the museum.

Capt Brown said: “If you are in trouble the Royal Navy would come and help.

“It’s never a dull moment in Search and Rescue, but it is all about being a team effort and team co-operation and helping people who are frightened out of their wits.

“It has been one of the most difficult jobs in the Royal Navy, but one of the most satisfying.”

Captain Brown started his Fleet Air Arm career during the Second World War where he flew Grumman Martlets from aircraft carriers protecting Atlantic Convoys.

Later her became a test pilot and has flown 487 different aircraft types, more than any other pilot, and carried out 2,407 aircraft carrier landings.

A bronze bust of Captain Brown, as a young Fleet Airm Arm Pilot, is on display at the museum and was unveiled in March 2015.

TV presenter Jules Hudson, best known for his work on BBC's Escape to the Country and Countryfile, was at the museum today to help with the official opening of the exhibition.

He told people at the opening that he has been making a new series for the History Channel entitled Defenders of the Sky and that he had visited RNAS Yeovilton to tell the “story of the Fleet Air Arm and the flying sailors.”

PHOTO - RIGHT: The inside of the cockpit in the Sea King.

The presenter said the series had allowed him to “indulge in my passion for aviation history” and that he had been able to fulfil a boyhood dream by getting a ride in a Sea King helicopter.

“When I was about five-years-old I was given a model of a Sea King and it was the first aircraft I ever learnt to name,” he said. “I never thought I would get the chance to one day fly in one. Thanks to the team here at Yeovilton that happened and we flew over Glastonbury Tor – so close I could almost touch it. It was a seminal moment for me.”

Jules added that the Fleet Air Arm Museum had the “finest collection of aircraft anywhere in the world.”

“But it is the stories about the aircraft which bring the aircraft to life,” he said.

The highlight of the exhibition includes a Sea King helicopter affectionately called the “Banana Split” which has recently been decommissioned from service to make way for the new Agusta Westland Merlin EH101 Helicopter. The exhibition coincides with the end of the Search and Rescue Service for the Royal Navy.

The ‘Banana Split’, colour half yellow and half red, is a specially adapted real Search & Rescue Sea King, and visitors have been able to get a real feel of what working aboard is like.

The exhibition features numerous artefacts relating to search and rescue and plots a timeline featuring earlier helicopters used through the ages for operational rescue missions.

Visitors were able to try on pilot kit and survival life jackets and former Sea King pilots were on hand to share their experiences.

 Further details about the Fleet Air Arm Museum are available on www.fleetairarm.com .

PHOTO - ABOVE LEFT: Autor David Morris. PHOTO - ABOVE RIGHT: Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown.

PHOTO - ABOVE: TV presenter and aviation history fan Jules Hudson at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at RNAS Yeovilton on Sunday, August 2, 2015.

Tags:
News.