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Martin-Baker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Martin-Baker Aircraft is a manufacturer of aircraft seats and was a pioneer in the design and manufacture of ejection seats. The company's headquarters are in Higher Denham, Buckinghamshire, UK.
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It started as an aircraft maker, the Martin Baker Aircraft Company, founded in 1934 by Captain (later Sir) James Martin (11 September 1893 – 5 January 1981) and Captain Valentine Baker MC AFC (24 August 1888 – 12 September 1942). Baker was a flying instructor and took the role of company test pilot.
Martin-Baker designed and produced several prototype military aircraft prior to and during the Second World War, although none ever entered production. These designs included:
- Martin-Baker M.B.1 (1935) - two-seat light aircraft
- Martin-Baker M.B.2 (1938) - Napier powered fighter prototype
- Martin-Baker M.B.3 (1942) - six cannon armed fighter design; Val Baker was killed in a crash while testing the prototype
- Martin-Baker M.B.4 (1943) Griffin engined fighter, cancelled on the drawing board
- Martin-Baker M.B.5 (1944) - Griffon engined with contra rotating propellor fighter design
- Martin-Baker M.B.6 (1945) (Second World War jet fighter project with swing-arm, 0/0 spring-loaded ejection seat)
- Martin-Baker M.B.7 (1946) Black Bess (postwar interceptor/high-speed test aircraft concept). Small flight models made but concept cancelled in 1947.
Throughout the Second World War, Martin-Baker manufactured aircraft components including armoured aircraft seats for Supermarine Spitfires. In 1944 the company was approached by the Ministry of Aircraft Production to investigate providing high-speed fighter aircraft ejection systems to enable pilots to bail out safely.
Martin-Baker started to investigate ejection seats from 1934 onward, several years before Germany (1938) and Sweden. The company concluded that an explosive-powered ejection seat was the best solution. Studies found the limits of upward acceleration which the human body could stand and included experiments on a volunteer, Bernard Lynch, who was a fitter at the factory. Their first seat was successfully live tested by Bert Lynch on 24 July 1946, who ejected from a Gloster Meteor travelling at 320 mph (510 km/h) IAS at 8,000 feet (2,500 m) over Chalgrove Airfield in Oxfordshire.
The first use of an ejector seat in a practical application by a British pilot involved the Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52 flying wing experimental aircraft in May 1949.
Martin-Baker was a leading pioneer in expanding the operational envelope of the ejection seat so it could be used a low altitudes and airspeeds leading eventually to a "zero-zero" capability.
Martin-Baker has supplied approximately 69,000 ejection seats of which 19,000 are currently in service. 7,195 to date – 10% of the total delivered – have been used by aircrew to abandon aircraft. It also manufactures fixed shock-absorbing helicopter seats designed to help the occupants survive crashes.
A 1998 episode of the TV series JAG was titled "The Martin Baker Fan Club" in reference to a character's survival after ejection from a military jet.
The company has diversified into spacecraft reentry systems such as heatshields, parachutes and the pyrotechnics for deploying them. It designed and manufactured the parachute system ESA's Huygens probe which was launched on-board Cassini in 1997 and successfully landed on Titan on January 14, 2005. This was the first planetary landing system to have been made in Western Europe. In 1998 the experience with Huygens led to the company becoming a member of the consortium which developed Beagle 2, intended to land on Mars. However, in June 2001 the company withdrew from the project due to "irreconcilable commercial differences" with the project's industrial prime contractor, which subsequently had severe problems in developing a decent system within the constraints of mass, time and cost.[1] The Beagle 2 Mars landing on December 25, 2003 was unsuccessful.
The company maintains its own airfield, Chalgrove Airfield, in Oxfordshire for operational testing of ejection seats. A second airfield (the former RAF Langford Lodge near Crumlin in County Antrim) is also used for testing, and houses a 6,200 feet high speed rocket sled track.
Two Gloster Meteor aircraft, WL419 and WA638, remain in service with the company as flying testbeds. Another Meteor (WA634), used in early development of ejection seats is retained at the RAF Museum at RAF Cosford.
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Bowyer, Michael J.F. Interceptor Fighters for the Royal Air Force 1935-45. Wellingborough, UK: Patrick Stephens Ltd., 1984. ISBN 0-85059-726-9.
- Green, William, ed. "Mr. Martin's Memorable M.B.5." Air International Vol. 16, no. 2, February 1979.
- Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War: Fighters, Volume Two. London, Macdonald & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 1961.
- Green, William and Swanborough, Gordon. WW2 Fact Files: RAF Fighters, Part 2. London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd., 1979. ISBN 0-354-01234-7.
- Zuk, Bill. Janusz Zurakowski: Legends in the Sky. St. Catharine's, Ontario: Vanwell, 2004. ISBN 1-55125-083-7.
- Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Limited
- Electronic Library, see Propulsion Systems Contribution to Success of Aircrew Emergency Escape Systems (PDF File, pay site)
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