| Bede Bd-5 |
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| homebuilt aircraft | |
| pusher aircraft | |
| u.s. sports planes 1970-1979 | |
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The Bede BD-5 is a small, single-seat Homebuilt kit aircraft that was introduced in the early 1970s by Bede Aircraft Corp. It was designed by Jim Bede . It is a Pusher aircraft design, with the engine installed in a compartment in the middle of the fuselage, and a propeller in the rear. Over 5,000 kits were shipped, but few were actually completed due to the company's bankruptcy in the mid-1970s, brought on by the failure to deliver a reliable engine for the design. DEVELOPMENT The first model was the BD-5A, with an extremely short 14-foot (4.27 m) wingspan which made the aircraft extremely hard to fly except for the most experienced pilots. The '''BD-5B''' increased the wingspan to 21 feet (6.40 m), which greatly improved the handling of the little bird. The '''BD-5D''' was to be the FAA -certified model of the aircraft, but certification was never completed and it never entered production. The '''BD-5S''' was a one-of-a-kind Sailplane model which was never produced due to an unimpressive glide ratio. BD Micro Technologies , a company operating out of Siletz, Oregon , designed the BD-5TP, a Turboprop version of the BD-5 using a modified Solar/Hamilston Sundstrand T62 turbine engine mated to a custom-designed mechanically-controlled variable-pitch propeller. The BD-5J is the jet version of the aircraft, the result of mating the BD-5 fuselage and a shortened 17-foot (5.18 m) wingspan with the Microturbo TRS-18 Turbojet engine, manufactured by Microturbo in Toulouse , France, and by Ames Industrial in the United States under license from Microturbo. The aircraft was featured in the first few minutes of the James Bond movie '' Octopussy '' starring Sir Roger Moore . Corky Fornof was the stunt pilot who performed the scene in which the aircraft (identified in the credits as the ''Acro Star'') flew through a hangar. An example of the BD-5J currently based in San Juan, Puerto Rico holds the Guinness Record for the World's Smallest Jet aircraft. Airframe kits for this tiny jet are still available from BD Micro Technologies and Alturair in San Diego, California , but the engines are much harder to find, as Microturbo no longer sells them for man-rated applications. SURVIVING AIRCRAFT As Of 2002 , there were an estimated 150 BD-5's in airworthy condition {Link without Title} . A BD-5 is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center , an annex of the National Air And Space Museum at Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia . The BD-5J known as the Bud Light Jet suffered an engine compartment fire after a fuel flow sensor burst, and the aircraft was lost. The pilot bailed out of the aircraft after trading speed for altitude, and was unharmed. The BD-5J is now certified as a cruise missile surrogate, and operates as the Smart-1 (Smart Manned Aerial Radar Target, Model 1) . The aircraft's radar return is so small, and the operational capabilities and performance of the tiny jet so well matched to those of cruise missiles, that it makes a perfect substitute as a training aid for all branches of the US Armed Forces. SPECIFICATIONS (BD-5B) General characteristics
Performance
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