The Martin-Baker MB 4 was an unbuilt project of refitting a Bristol Centaurus engine into the fuselage of an MB 3, while the MB 5 was the ultimate development of the MB fighter series. Unfortunately not much is known about the MB 4.
Martin-Baker designed the MB 5 to compete in the Air Ministry's F.18/39 specification for an agile and sturdy fighter that could go faster than 400mph (643km/h).
After the crashing of the second prototype of the MB 3, Martin Baker decided to go with a completely new design that used wings similar to those of the MB 3 but had a completely new steel tube fuselage. It was powered by a 2340hp Rolls-Royce Griffon engine that drove two three-bladed contra-rotating propellers. It was armed with four 20mm cannons placed in the wings, just outboard of the retractable landing gear. It was, as every Martin Baker design, very easy to maintain and repair.
The prototype flew for the first time on 23rd May 1944 and both its performance and general instruments layouts were praised by the test pilots and it was considered way better than the Spitfire, in fact, it was expected to enter service during the last weeks of the World War II over Germany. However the Royal Air Force centered their attention in the jet powered fighters (namely the Gloster Meteor or the De Havilland Vampire) maybe because the Griffon engine failed when the airplane was being demonstrated to Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, the Chief of Air Staff and another VIPs. Sadly enough, the prototype ended its days as a target in a gunnery range, so it was destroyed.
Sources:
1. http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,7053.msg60590.html
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin-Baker_MB_5
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
thanks WD!
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