Price: £50.00

Martin Baker 5

The small Martin Baker aircraft company was formed by James Martin, (chief designer) and Captain Valentine Baker, (test pilot) in 1934. During the late 1930's and 1940's the company produced an outstanding series of fighter planes which were characterised by their engineering elegance and simplicity. The final aircraft in the series was something very special and may be the finest piston engined fighter ever created.

The Martin Baker 5 was based on the Martin Baker 3, (the only prototype of which was destroyed after failure of its Napier Sabre engine killing captain Baker), but the armament was reduced from six cannons to four and the troublesome Sabre engine replaced by a Rolls Royce Griffon 83 of 2,340 HP. The interchanger coolant and oil radiators were re-situated well aft in a laminar flow duct similar to the North American Mustang. Particular attention was paid to the cockpit layout which set new standards in fighter design, and ease of maintainence. For example the aircraft was dismantled at Denham in under an hour, loaded onto a Queen Mary Trailer for delivery to Harwell by lunch, then reassembled and flight tested before tea. Try doing that with a Spitfire!

The Martin Baker 5 was test flown on May 23rd 1944 by Bryan Greensted, Rotol's chief test pilot and after slight re design of the fin and rudder to cure some directional instabiliity the handling was found to be stunning. Infact something of a que developed of test pilots who wanted to fly her. On March 1st 1946 the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment issued it's first report, part if which is quoted here, "...It is considered the general design and layout of the Martin Baker 5 is excellent, and is infinitely better - from the engineering and maintainence apect - than any other similar type of aircraft." this type of language is unusual in an official report. Infact the hardened professionals at Boscombe Down who had pretty much seen everything were enthralled by this amazingly good aircraft. Later that year Jan Zurakowski displayed the MB5 at Farnborough which the distinguished aviation historian Bill Gunston describes as "the most staggering, breathtaking show I ever saw with a piston engined fighter."

Unfortunately for the MB5 the jet engined Gloster Meteor had flown rather earlier and for all of it's limitations was 100 mph faster and represented the future. Therefore no production contract was awarded to Martin Baker's and the MB5 was the companies final aircraft. Sometimes quality just isnt enough.

Postscript

After the death of his close friend Captain Baker in the MB3 James Martin began to think seriously about how to safely eject a pilot from a doomed aircraft. On 24 July 1946 the worlds first successful ejector seat trial was achieved by the Martin Baker company, who are now the worlds largest manufacturer of aircraft ejection seats,

Performance

A top speed of 460 mph at 20,000 ft
Weight: 11,500 lb's fully loaded
Powerplant: One Rolls Royce Griffon 83 of 2,340 HP.
Armament: Four 20mm British Hispano cannon.