Did terrible toil, on the quiet, get him his wings? (5)
I believe the answer is:
pilot
'him his wings?' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'did terrible toil on the quiet' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'toil' is 'ilot' which is within the answer.
'quiet' could be 'p' (music symbol for 'piano', ie soft or quiet) and 'p' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'get' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pilot that I've seen before include "Experimental scheme; flyer" , "Drive" , "One-off programme" , "who shows the way?" , "He steers ship or plane" .)