The Fighter That Tried To Replace The Spitfire | Martin-Baker MB.5 [Aircraft Overview #82]

foreign we're taking a look at one of the most promising and interesting prototype aircraft developed by Britain during the second world war unfortunately it's never Source service despite boasting very high performance figures and this was because of a mix of poor timing poor planning and most of all poor luck we are of course talking about the Martin Baker mb5 this fascinating aircraft was the brainchild of James Martin he and Captain Valentine Baker had founded the firm in 1934 and their first aircraft a light touring model dubbed the mb1 would set the stage for a long string of prototypes well into the 1940s the lineage of the Martin Bakers would mostly consist of fighter aircraft the most famous of which originated from an air Ministry specification that called for a replacement for the hurricane and the Spitfire fire a tall order indeed the story of the mb5 actually begins with the mb3 which was designed to meet air Ministry specification f18-39 this called for a high-speed single-seat fighter and with a war looming on the horizon one that was capable of operating in any part of the world regardless of climate the specification required a top speed of no less than 400 miles an hour at 15 000 feet and it strongly suggested the use of a two-stage supercharger to get the most out of the engine regardless of altitude the Armament was expected to be either a pair of 20 millimeter cannons or eight 303 caliber machine guns though the latter were already beginning to fall out of favor they were still in large Supply as this new fighter was expected to use these guns for either home defense or potential escort work the specification called for a fairly high endurance two hours of cruising time plus an extra 30 minutes at full power to cover both takeoff and combat time with a further 30 fuel load held in reserve this was a lot to ask of any manufacturer in 1939 especially when the performance of the Spitfire was considered as the thing to beat for minimum requirements but Martin Baker Rose to the challenge the mb3 the original attempt to develop an aircraft for this specification was on paper an incredibly promising design firstly it was to be equipped with not two but six 20 millimeter Hispano cannons each with 200 rounds per gun and secondly it was to be very powerful the newly developed Rolls-Royce Griffin was to be the intended power plant and with it Martin Baker predicted a top speed in excess of 410 miles an hour at 15 000 feet Additionally the mb3 had been designed to be as easy as possible to repair and service most of the paneling could be easily removed and the whole thing could be broken down for Easy Transport something that was not possible with the current line of aircraft in the RAF with the design meeting the ministry's criteria a contract was signed and three prototype aircraft are ordered as the mb3 optimistically the delivery date for the first prototype was slated for the end of the year but as it turned out the mb3 would not be completed until much much later this was for three reasons firstly it became very apparent that the Rolls-Royce Griffin would not be ready for use in time and so an alternative had to be found secondly Martin Baker was not a particularly large company and completing a full prototype in six months was a huge ask and thirdly by the end of the year Britain was at War and Martin Baker were quickly swamped with other production orders which took a higher priority because of all this the mb3 was still incomplete by mid 1941 and the company was then informed that there was no longer a need for it and to know production orders were forthcoming but seeing as it was mostly complete they decided to finish the Prototype Anyway by this point it now had the 36 liter 2020 horsepower Napier saber the same H-24 engine that would power the Hawker typhoon and the Hawker Tempest but unlike those aircraft it would not feature the same chin mounted radiator that made them so recognizable Martin wanted all the speed he could get and to cut down on drag he moved the coolant and oil radiators to the underside of the Wings mounting the coolant system in this way certainly cleaned up the aircraft's lines but the saber engine repeatedly encountered problems with overheating during tests and this was a problem that would eventually have fatal consequences the Prototype flew for the first time on August 31st 1942 with Valentine Baker at the controls flying with ballast to simulate the weight of guns and ammunition it immediately demonstrated potential when it's attained a top speed of 415 miles an hour at 20 000 feet the trials for the mb3 would continue from August into September but then tragedy would strike on the 12th of September Valentine Baker had just lifted off when the Napier saber engine failed due to a broken sleeve Drive crank Baker attempted an emergency landing putting his aircraft down in a field Beyond The Runway but he hit a tree stump or a hay bale sources conflict on this and he was killed the aircraft Going Up in Flames this event essentially stopped the mb3 project in its tracks and Martin Baker was now missing one of its original Founders the death of Baker is considered to have deeply affected Martin who had been Baker's best friend and partner since the firm's Inception as a result the trajectory of the company would be altered significantly in the following years however Martin was still determined to build a superior fighter her and carry on the work that he and Baker had started he therefore began on a redesign of their mb3 making numerous improvements re-engining it with a Rolls-Royce Griffin and the resulting aircraft from this would become the mb5 design and construction were in some ways remarkably similar to that of the mb3 but there were of course many changes the aircraft sported a tubular steel frame skinned with aluminum panels most of which were detachable which meant that it retained the mb3's ease of assembly this would be a strong point of the aircraft in fact allowing a very high degree of modularity and repairability as aluminum panels which functioned as the skin of the airframe could simply be replaced if needed and taken off during maintenance by the ground crew the instantly recognizable clipped short wings of the airframe were also carried on for its predecessor as well though internally there were in fact many alterations the Armament was in fact downgraded from the mb3 it's now had four 20 millimeter Hispano Mark II cannons down from six though the ammo load would remain unchanged with 200 rounds per gun for a total of 800. the bulk of the systems would now be operated pneumatically including the undercarriage brakes and split trailing Edge flaps whilst the control surfaces were completely covered in metal with the exception of the rudder which was skinned in fabric the biggest change would of course be found in the nose a re-engine was needed that much had been clear and the Bristol Centaurus was briefly considered and plans drawn up this radial-powered aircraft would be referred to as the mb4 but it only existed on paper instead as previously mentioned the powerful Rolls-Royce Griffin would be the power plant of choice the Griffin 83 was installed producing upwards of 2 300 horsepower and driving to Contour rotating three-bladed propellers a popular myth exists that the mb5 was based on the P-51 Mustang though there is no supporting evidence to suggest that this is anything more than just that a myth the similar design and shape of the coolant Radiator on the lower fuselage is a contributing factor to The Superficial similarity between the two but in fact the mb5 has a drastically different fuselage and Wing construction design to the P51 and was primarily based on Martin Baker's previous line of aircraft which predates the P-51 by years it's most likely a case of convergent evolution two high-performing aircraft designed with powerful inline engines and high speeds at similar times resulting in similar design choices being made in terms of Dimensions the mb5 was comparatively large for an aircraft of its type at least in the United Kingdom with a wingspan of 35 feet and a length and height of 37 foot 9 and 12 foot 6 respectively this made it significantly longer than the Spitfire it was intended to replace and more akin to the larger single-engine Fighters fielded by the United States thus adding fuel to the rumors that part of its design was lifted from the P51 this made to the mb5 rather predictably quite heavy weighing in at 9 233 pounds empty and eleven and a half thousand pounds when fully loaded construction of the aircraft would begin in 1943 though the process would be rather slow due to other commitments the company had been held to there was still a little something called the second world war going on and frustratingly for the air Ministry Mr James Martin was apparently something of a perfectionist with this design as he repeatedly held back the Prototype making small alterations and tinkering with it as he went along this tinkering would eventually allow the aircraft to maximize its performance before its first flight trials but it may have also unfortunately been a contributing factor to the eventual decision to not pursue with further development later on as Captain Baker had been the sole test pilots for the company an outside Pilots had to be brought in for the test flights of the mb5 and this was Brian grinstead loaned from rotol a fellow British Aviation firm that specialized in propellers on the 23rd of May 1944 the completed prototype given the serial number r2496 would be disassembled and transported to the testing grounds at Raf Harwell immediately the ability to disassemble transport reassemble and fly a modern fighter aircraft in less than a day speaks volumes about the intelligent engineering that had gone into the mb5's design let alone the fact that reportedly assembling it took just one hour but unfortunately it would not be all good news for the Prototype greenstead would in fact be fairly critical of the mb5 Upon finishing the initial flight mainly citing some pronounced directional instability Martin however was not discouraged and he got to work drawing up some changes to remedy the aircraft's deficiencies based mostly on careful analysis of greenstead's detailed flight report it was found that the large Contour rotating propellers reduced the authority of the rudder which had remained virtually unchanged from the mb3 so to combat to this Martin would refit the Prototype with a significantly taller vertical tail surface this modification took almost six months to complete owing to testing various Rudder sizes but when greenstead flew the mb5 again the handling had improved dramatically in terms of performance the aircraft was highly praised recording a top speed of 395 miles an hour at sea level level which rose to 425 miles an hour at 6 000 feet and finally up to 459 miles an hour at 20 000. it's climbed pretty quickly as well in six and a half minutes the mb5 could reach 20 000 feet which was roughly on par with comparable late War propeller driven Fighters but the acceleration was considered to be one of the few shortcomings along with some lingering directional instability due to the high weight of the aircraft though conversely this also gave improved acceleration in Dives which allowed it to reach extremely high speeds by which all accounts had excelled at range in endurance was also reviewed favorably with the 750 liter fuel capacity housed in two tanks in front and behind the pilot allowing a range of up to 1120 miles Additionally the spaced out design of the undercarriage like that on the mb3 gave a much safer and robust Landing performance to the mb5 when compared to the narrow track undercarriage of the Spitfire as an added bonus the Contra rotating propellers and negated the problems caused by engine torque this improved control on the ground and in the air as the aircraft wasn't pulled by torque to one side like on a conventional single propeller fighter and this would have made the mb5 easier to learn for inexperienced Pilots had it entered service perhaps two years earlier to actually be useful in the closing months of 1944 with barely 40 hours of flight time logged on the mb5 the air Ministry informed Martin that they would not be pursuing further development or placing any production orders for the aircraft this was unfortunately a case of supply and demand the war in Europe was winding down and the RAF did not urgently need a new generation of fighter designs and when they did it was becoming increasingly obvious that the new generation would belong to jet powered aircraft in fact some were already in development and so the mb5 was now relegated to a life of testing and public exhibitions among these during 1945 the mb5 would take part in a demonstration in front of Winston Churchill at farnborough but it had the misfortunate timing of suffering in engine failure mid flight following this near miss it was operated far more conservatively over the next 18 months being flown by a variety of test pilots and accumulating just a further 40 hours of flight time though little used during this time and in the following years it received almost Universal praise from whoever had a chance to fly it in June 1946 the aircraft would return to farnborough and take part in an aerobatic show in the hands of Polish Squadron leader Jan zirakowski a man famous for his aromatic skills and one that would Proclaim that the mb5 was the finest he had ever flown in further testing throughout 1947 the mb5 would be flown by Wing Commander Maurice A Smith at De Havilland at Hatfield before again returning to Rae farnborough at farnborough the aircraft would then be flown by Captain Eric Winkle Brown a pilot famous for his wartime service and his legendary career as a test pilot Brown would mirror the opinions of his peers complimenting the aircraft's impressive top speed and handling saying in my opinion this is an outstanding aircraft particularly when regarded in the light of the fact that it made its Maiden flight as early as the 23rd of May 1944. despite his High Praise he did mention that the aircraft's biggest Vice was still its directional instability a trait which apparently the enlarged vertical stabilizer had not completely fixed by this point the mb5 was in its Autumn years for the next two years of its life it would be moved to the air Ministry servicing development unit at Raf watashim and used predominantly as a training and testing airframe until 1950. then it was relocated to RAF Burcham Newton where the much loved but unfortunate mb5 now our six-year-old airframe would meet its ultimate demise it was used as a ground Target in training exercises until 1963 when what was left of it was then burned it was a negligent and undeserved end to such a historically interesting aircraft one that should probably have been preserved and stuck in a museum and unfortunately this means that today we only have a replica built in Nevada United States now this was built two meters shorter than the original and used the wings of a P-51 Mustang had the mb5 gone into service it would have been one of the fastest combat aircraft in the world for the time at least but sadly it was not to be it was simply too late to Garner interest and 80 years on we can only speculate on what might have been had it been built just a little bit faster the location of Captain Valentine Baker's crash site was found in December of 2020 and is located at Aylesbury Vale Golf Club a memorial of Valentine Baker along with a bust of him was erected there and it's now open to the public along with a further Memorial at Raf Wing next to the hangar where the mb3 was originally stored after a few more Ventures into aircraft design the post-war jet-powered mb6 and 7 Martin Baker as a company would produce no more and Martin himself as a result of Baker's death would reorganize and dedicate his company and the rest of his life to the design and production of aircraft ejection systems to save Pilots lives which is what the company is famous and still successful for today as always thank you all so much for watching and a big thank you of course to the patrons you know I finally believe we are back on to a regular video schedule again long may it remains so now there may not be an upload this coming Wednesday as I am hoping for a long video to be ready for next weekend but we'll see how things pan out a big shout out of course to the wing Commander tier patrons our highest team members and a special thank you to Jason duban who is the newest member of this special group patreon has been a bit slow with updating details on my end this week so if anyone is missing from these lists I apologize and hopefully it will all be up to date next week but as always thank you all so much for your continued support and I'll catch you all next time goodbye

Channel: Rex's Hangar

Views: 694,590

Keywords: Martin baker mb5, Martin-Baker MB.5, mb 5 fighter, Martin Baker MB3, Martin-Baker MB.3, rexs hangar, rex's hangar, ww2, ww2 aviation, raf, Martin-Baker, ww2 documentary, plane video, aviation, history, documentary, royal air force, superprop

Id: 1CJWEc_sQkQ

Length: 19min 18sec (1158 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 10 2022