F. Taylor Brown (1925–2011)

F. Taylor Brown was a renowned U.S. Navy rear admiral, aviator, and test pilot who held the world time-to-climb record in piloting a F4H-1 Phantom Jet fighter to 20,000 meters (65,617 feet). He was later Falcon Jet Corporation’s general manager in Little Rock (Pulaski County) and chairman of the Little Rock Airport Commission. Brown was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame in 1991.

Francis Taylor Brown (who used Taylor as his first name) was born on August 11, 1925, in Ashland, Wisconsin, the son of Frank Edward Brown, a railroad engineer for Chicago and Northwestern Transportation Company, and Lavina May Taylor Brown.

Taylor attended public schools in Ashland, and after high school graduation in 1943, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve; two years later, he was commissioned as an ensign and naval aviator. At the 1948 Cleveland National Air Races, Brown, as part of the navy’s first squadron equipped with jets, flew an FJ-1 Fury to first place in the Bendix Trophy Race, demonstrating the reliability and speed of the navy’s new jet technology to the public for the first time. In 1962, Brown flew an F-4 Phantom II to 20,000 meters in the world record time of 2 minutes and 58 seconds. He also was the first person to fly a single-engine jet (the FJ-1 Fury) across the Atlantic.

During the Korean War, Brown attended Marquette University and completed the Naval War College training twice, in 1960 and 1968. In 1969, he received a BS from George Washington University.

Brown led the first air strike on North Vietnam in 1964 as the commanding officer of Fighter Squadron 143 (VF-143) from the USS Enterprise. He flew twenty-four combat missions during that period.

He retired in 1979 after thirty-six years, attaining the rank of rear admiral and accumulating 4,500 flight hours in sixty-five aircraft types. He was awarded the Legion of Merit, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Stars, and numerous other awards.

Following his retirement, Taylor joined the Falcon Jet Corporation in Little Rock, first as vice president and program manager overseeing modifications to forty-one Falcon 20 aircraft for the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1985, he advanced to senior vice president and general manager of the Little Rock facility during a period of substantial growth of the company, resulting in aircraft emerging as Arkansas’s leading manufacturing export. He retired from Falcon Jet in 1991.

In December 1995, Brown joined the Little Rock Airport Commission, becoming chairman in 2010. He served until his death in a one-vehicle automobile accident in Little Rock on July 11, 2011. His wife of nineteen years, Shirley Brown, was a passenger but survived the crash. Taylor is interred in Westfield, Wisconsin.

For additional information:
F. Taylor Brown, Rear Admiral, USN (Ret.). The Golden Eagles. https://www.epnaao.com/BIOS_files/DECEASED/Brown-%20F.Taylor.pdf (accessed September 30, 2026).

Obituary of F. Taylor Brown. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 15, 2011. https://www.arkansasonline.com/obituaries/2011/jul/15/f-brown-2011-07-15/ (accessed September 30, 2026).

Richard Holbert
Little Rock, Arkansas