Winkle Brown
Would be interesting to know if (as the naval test pilot) Winkle Brown was at the Heston Fleet Air Arm display on 2 October 1945? I'm currently reading the book he's holding up on the FAST webpage, and on page 23 that tells us that late on the following day, 3 October, he very nearly came a cropper in fog, while ferrying an Arado 234B from Schleswig via Brussels to Farnborough - one of a complete squadron of them captured at Sola (Stavanger), Norway. He had a Luftwaffe POW pilot flying another one in close formation with him (the poor German wasn't allowed maps!), and of course they lost each other in the fog. Winkle Brown got his down, with just fumes left in the tanks, on a somewhat marginal German airfield (Nordholz), while his companion excelled himself by safely getting his aircaft into a minute Dutch grass airfield (Eelde), which just happened to also be more bomb crater than grass! That's how the Dutch obtained an Arado 234, as nobody could fly it out again. The Arado was one jet aircraft which would have given the Vampire a very good run for its money.