TYPE: Interceptor fighter

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: One Rolls-Royce Griffon 83 liquid-cooled engine, rated at 2,340 hp, driving a six-blade contra-rotating propeller

PERFORMANCE: 460 mph at 20,000 ft

COMMENT: The Martin-Maker M.B.5, developed on the basis of the Martin-Baker M.B.3,  was considered by many to represent the extreme limit of piston-engined fighter development. Apart from its superlative performance and handling characteristics, the M.B.5 had a number of outstanding qualities and the general design and layout was excellent and infinitely better than any other similar type of aircraft. It first took-off into the air on May 1944. Although all pilots who flew the M.B.5 in the following time were fulsome in their praise of its qualities it was not put into production, remaining one of the minor mysteries of the war (Ref: 12).