Visiting Martin Baker tomorrow

[topsparks]

Managed to sort out a tour of the factory, taking along some Air Cadets as they have run out of volunteers for seat testing!,not sure if we will be able to take pictures though.

[FourWheelDrift]

Firing air cadets out of a Meteor at 200ft?







Photos please when you can

[filski666]

now that would be an interesting place to go and see!

[topsparks]

We are not going to the airfield(Chalgrove I think),but the factory at Denham.

[Legacywr]

We do or have done work for MB, they have a funny/quaint factory, not quite what you expect!

[FourWheelDrift]

topsparks said:

We are not going to the airfield(Chalgrove I think),but the factory at Denham.

Correction then.


Firing air cadets out of a seat in a factory without hitting the roof, most times.







Photos please when you can

[Legacywr]

I would be very suprised if you are able to use a camera on thier site? I could be wrong though.

[Yertis]

Legacywr said:

We do or have done work for MB, they have a funny/quaint factory, not quite what you expect!

Yes it is. Nice bunch of people, rightly very proud of their work.

[john_p]

Out of interest which air cadets?

[topsparks]

153 Slough SQN,was at 2424 Langley but that's closed due to problems with the lease and the loss of our CO.
Myself and the Cadets had a great time today and MB really pushed the boat out for us and made us very welcome the 3 guys that showed us around were fantastic and very knowledgeable.I do have some pics that my IT expert(15yr old!)will up load when hes back from Cadets tonight,no pics of the factory floor but have some from the seat museum.! bit of trivia that I found interesting was that during the height of the Vietnam war MB seats where saving on average 10 pilots a day!.

[topsparks]

topsparks jr here to upload the pictures

[badgers_back]

topsparks said:

bit of trivia that I found interesting was that during the height of the Vietnam war MB seats where saving on average 10 pilots a day!.

err interesting to see how they get that figure...

7333 lives saved so far by mb

and vietnam as a dam sight longer then 730 days..

10 lives in a day I'd believe average nooooo way

guess it depends how you define the height of the war

Backs up what I'm thinking here

http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/PROJECT/YEAR_Pa...

I'm struggling to find more than say 4-5 a day

Edited by badgers_back on Friday 29th October 16:26

[Munter]

Height of the war. That's easy it's the day they saved 10.

[Waynester]

My grandad worked for MB in Denham for 38 years! He used to bring home loads of bits & pieces, I stuck 'Danger Do Not Pull Handle' all over the place.
One day my grandad actually brought back a parachute! I remember holding it with my sister to open the canopy...which then proceeded to lift me off my feet & almost dump me in the field at the bottom of our (old) garden.

I also had 100's of original photo's, b+w, and colour, showing ejections from test aircraft (Meteor) & sledge.

He worked in the sheet metal shop & built the top box part of the seat.

Edited by Waynester on Friday 29th October 20:44

[Simpo Two]

Interesting stuff.

Did they have any MB5's? Looks like the bd son of a Spitfire and Mustang:

[FourWheelDrift]

They only built one, which was later destroyed on a gunnery range. As with most government MOD projects they aren't allowed to live once rejected.

[Simpo Two]

FourWheelDrift said:

They only built one, which was later destroyed on a gunnery range. As with most government MOD projects they aren't allowed to live once rejected.

Although there is a replica:

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/23110283/...

Note one dummy asks if the contra-rotating props are push/pull

[eharding]

Simpo Two said:

FourWheelDrift said:

They only built one, which was later destroyed on a gunnery range. As with most government MOD projects they aren't allowed to live once rejected.

Although there is a replica:

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/23110283/...

Note one dummy asks if the contra-rotating props are push/pull

dazza9806482 - the bluntest tool in a box of exceptionally blunt tools.

[FourWheelDrift]

Someone should tell him the only push/pull contra-prop planes that can take off are the ones that use conveyor belts.

[Eric Mc]

Good series of articles in the latest Aeroplane Monthly on the Martin Baker fighter projects.