Aires 2109 M.B. Mk.4-CA-2 ejection seat

The Martin-Baker Mk.4 was and still is a British ejection seat which was introduced in the late 1950s. The first successful use of this ejection seat was in March 1957. The official website of the manufacturer states that currently (2019) there are still over 700 seats of this type in service! For the seat to work effectively, the pilot's weight must be between 71 and 102 kilograms. The Martin-Baker Mk.4 armchair was developed with certain design solutions of its predecessor (the Mk.3 model), but many new technical solutions were used in it, while some of them were abandoned. The overarching goal of its designers was to reduce the weight of the seat as much as possible and to be able to use it on relatively small and light aircraft, such as light fighters or training and training planes. The Martin-Baker Mk.4 armchair turned out to be a great technical and commercial success of its manufacturer and was mounted on machines such as: Hawker Hunter, English Electric Canberra, but also Dassault Mk.450, Dornier Do-29, SEPECAT Jaguar or Aermacchi MB-326. It is estimated that the Martin-Baker Mk.4 armchair saved the lives of over 1,200 pilots!