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The
BD-5 Micro is a series of small, single-seat
homebuiltAlso known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, homebuilt aircraft are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch," from plans, or from assembly kits.-Overview:...
aircraft created in the late 1960s by US aircraft designer
Jim BedeJames R. "Jim" Bede is an aircraft designer, who is often credited with the creation of the modern kitplane market. He has designed well over a dozen aircraft since the 1960s, but a string of business failures have kept most of these designs out of widespread use. -Bede Aviation:Bede was raised in...
and introduced to the market primarily in "kit" form by the now-defunct
Bede Aircraft CorporationBede Aircraft Corporation was founded by controversial aeronautical engineer Jim Bede in 1961 to produce the BD-1 kit aircraft, which eventually became the American Aviation Corporation's AA-1. The company also created and produced a number of advanced kit planes including the famous Bede BD-5 and...
in the early 1970s.
The BD-5 has a small, streamlined fuselage holding its semi-reclined pilot under a large canopy, with the engine installed in a compartment in the middle of the fuselage, and a propeller or jet engine in the BD-5J variant, mounted immediately to the rear of the cockpit. The combination of fighter-like looks and relatively low cost led to the BD-5 selling over 5,000 kits or plans, with approximately 12,000 orders being taken for a proposed factory-built FAA certified version. However, few of the kit versions were actually completed due to the company's bankruptcy in the mid-1970s, and none of the factory built "D" models produced, brought on by the failure to deliver a reliable engine for the design.
In total, only a few hundred BD-5 kits were completed, although many of these are still being flown today. The BD-5J version holds the record for the world's lightest jet aircraft, weighing only 358.8 lb (162.7 kg).
The Micro concept
Development of the "Micro" dates back as early as 1967, when Jim Bede was inspired by the
Schleicher ASW 15|-References:***Thomas F, Fundamentals of Sailplane Design, College Park Press, 1999*Simons M, Segelflugzeuge 1965-2000, Eqip, 2004*...
. At the time, however, Bede was working on the
Bede BD-4|-See also:-References:* Taylor, Michael J.H. Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. London: Studio Editions, 1989, p. 123. ISBN 0-517-10316-8.* Winchester, Jim. "Bede BD-10." Concept Aircraft: Prototypes, X-Planes and Experimental Aircraft. Kent, UK: Grange Books plc., 2005. ISBN 1-84013-309-2.* World...
design. The BD-4 was a fairly conventional looking high-wing four-seater, but it offered good performance and was fairly inexpensive. Over the lifetime of the company about 600 BD-4s were sold, a success by any measure.
Serious work on the Micro started in 1970, with construction of the prototype starting in earnest late that year. While the BD-4 was fairly conventional looking, the Micro was a radical design. It is an extremely small one-seat design that looked more like a jet fighter than a "prop plane," with the pilot sitting in a semi-reclined position under a large fighter-like plexiglas canopy only inches above the pilot's head. Behind the cockpit was a compartment housing a two-cylinder air-cooled 40 hp
engineA reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common features of all types...
driving a pusher
propellerAircraft propellers or airscrews convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal...
. Two versions were planned, the
BD-5A with "short" 14' 3" (4.34 m) wings tuned for high speeds and acrobatics, and the
BD-5B with a 21' 6" (6.55 m) wings for longer range and powered
gliderA glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the sport of gliding. Some gliders, known as motor gliders are used for gliding and soaring as well, but have engines which can, in some cases, be used for take-off or for extending a flight...
use. Builders could optionally buy both wings, switching them in about 10 minutes.
For improved performance the aircraft featured both a
V-tailIn aircraft, a V-tail is an unconventional arrangement of the tail control surfaces that replaces the traditional fin and horizontal surfaces with two surfaces set in a V-shaped configuration when viewed from the front or rear of the aircraft...
and
retractable landing gearThe undercarriage or landing gear in aviation, is the structure that supports an aircraft on the ground and allows it to taxi, takeoff and land...
in order to reduce
dragIn fluid dynamics, drag refers to forces which act on a solid object in the direction of the relative fluid flow velocity...
. Calculated drag was so low that
spoilersIn aeronautics, a spoiler is a device intended to reduce lift in an aircraft. Spoilers are plates on the top surface of a wing which can be extended upward into the airflow and spoil it. By doing so, the spoiler creates a carefully controlled stall over the portion of the wing behind it, greatly...
were added to the wing in order to improve deceleration for landing. This was apparently the first application of spoilers on a light aircraft. The low drag implied excellent performance; with the short wings it would reach 210 mph (340 km/h) in cruise, while the long-wing BD-5B would be only slightly slower and have an extended range of 1,215 miles.
In addition to being easy to fly, the BD-5 was also intended to be easy to build and own. The
fuselageThe fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...
was constructed primarily from
fiberglassGlass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...
panels over an aluminum frame, reducing construction time to only a few hundred hours. Although the early designs required some
weldingWelding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence. This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes...
in the landing gear area, it was planned that this would be removed in the kit versions, so construction would require no special tooling or skills. Even the cost of operation would be extremely low, offering
fuel efficiencyFuel efficiency is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the efficiency of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier fuel into kinetic energy or work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, which in turn may vary per application, and this spectrum of variance is...
of almost 40 mpg. With the wings removed the aircraft could be packed into a small custom trailer, allowing it to be towed away by car for storage in a garage, and from there to any suitable flat area for takeoff.
Bede published an information booklet about the BD-5 in November 1970. Several very positive magazine articles appeared at this point. The October 1971 issue of
Science & Mechanics had the BD-5 on the cover, listing the price as $1,950 and a top speed of 215 MPH. The associated article showed the construction of the original prototype, with numerous claims about how easy it was to construct. The August 1973 issue of
Popular SciencePopular Science is an American monthly magazine founded in 1872 carrying articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. Popular Science has won over 58 awards, including the ASME awards for its journalistic excellence in both 2003 and 2004...
also covered the aircraft, although it listed the price at $2,965. A feeding frenzy followed as the "mini fighter" generated intense demand. As one author put it, "Even before the plane first left the ground, thoughts of flying the sleek, bullet-shaped aircraft with its pusher prop stimulated the imagination of nearly everyone who had heard of the program."
On February 24, 1971, the first $200 deposit to reserve a "place in line" to receive a kit was accepted, with the target shipping date being May 24, 1972. By August 1971, 800 deposits had been taken, even though the first BD-5 prototype had yet to complete high-speed taxi tests. By the end of the year, they had over 4,300 orders, making it one of the most popular general aircraft projects in modern history.
Flight testing
The prototype,
N500BD, flew briefly on September 12, 1971, powered by a 36 hp
Polaris IndustriesPolaris Industries is a manufacturer of snowmobiles, ATV, and neighborhood electric vehicles. Polaris is based in Medina, Minnesota, USA. The company also manufactures motorcycles through its Victory Motorcycles subsidiary and through the Indian Motorcycle subsidiary which it purchased in April...
snowmobileA snowmobile, also known in some places as a snowmachine, or sled,is a land vehicle for winter travel on snow. Designed to be operated on snow and ice, they require no road or trail. Design variations enable some machines to operate in deep snow or forests; most are used on open terrain, including...
engine. The
stabilityLongitudinal static stability is the stability of an aircraft in the longitudinal, or pitching, plane during static conditions. This characteristic is important in determining whether an aircraft will be able to fly as intended...
of the aircraft with the original V-tail was marginal at best, and clearly needed a redesign. With the original fiberglass fuselage this was a time consuming process, so the decision was made to switch to an all-metal fuselage with the components incorporating compound curves produced using
hydroformedHydroforming is a cost-effective way of shaping malleable metals such as aluminum or brass into lightweight, structurally stiff and strong pieces. One of the largest applications of hydroforming is the automotive industry, which makes use of the complex shapes possible by hydroforming to produce...
aircraft-grade aluminum alloy. These could be modified with relative ease during the testing cycle. It also made economic sense as the orders rolled in, as assembly line production of stamped metal parts is expensive to set up but less expensive in the long run.
By December 1971 the tooling for the new fuselage was in development. The aircraft now featured a longer, more pointed nose, whereas the more ovoid
N500BD had been patterned on the ASW 15. While this work was in progress, Bede continued to experiment with modifications to the
tailThe empennage , also known as the tail or tail assembly, of most aircraft gives stability to the aircraft, in a similar way to the feathers on an arrow...
, eventually abandoning the V-tail and changing to a more conventional vertical rudder and horizontal elevator layout with highly swept surfaces. Further testing on
N500BD showed flow interference between the horizontal surfaces and the propeller, and the elevator was raised six inches to correct it, placing it about mid-way up the rear fuselage.
The first example of the new fuselage arrived in March 1972, and was fitted with a new
KiekhaeferElmer Carl Kiekhaefer was the owner of Kiekhaefer Marine , and also a two-time NASCAR championship car owner.-Kiekhaefer Mercury founder:...
Aeromarine engine Bede had seen at the Oshkosh Airshow in 1971. Finished as
N501BD, numerous small delays prevented it from flying until July 11, 1972. These flights demonstrated continued problems with the pitch stability, so the tail was again redesigned with more area and less sweep, becoming much more conventional.
The program was now far too large for Bede to handle alone. In March 1972, he hired
Burt Rutan Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft...
to head the flight test department, who was soon followed by Les Berven as chief test pilot. They took over development, giving Bede more time to work on business issues. This was proving difficult enough, as Kiekhaefer and Bede could not reach an agreement about deliveries, forcing him to change to a similar 440 cc 40 hp Hirth Motoren design, but then selecting a larger 650 cc 55 hp Hirth engine instead.
Several additional problems turned up during testing.
StickA joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...
forces were very low, but this was easily addressed by making the
servo tabA servo tab is a small hinged device installed on an aircraft control surface to assist the movement of the control surface.-Servo tabs:...
s larger. A more worrying development was that the engines all had problems with
mixtureAir–fuel ratio is the mass ratio of air to fuel present in an internal combustion engine. If exactly enough air is provided to completely burn all of the fuel, the ratio is known as the stoichiometric mixture, often abbreviated to stoich...
due to changes in engine speed or load, which led to rough engine operation. In August Bede was demonstrating the BD-5 to the
FAAThe Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
in order to receive permission to fly at Oshkosh, when the engine seized. On its
deadstick landingA deadstick landing, also called a dead-stick landing is a type of forced landing when an aircraft loses all of its propulsive power and is forced to land. The term is often misunderstood, as the flight controls in the majority of aircraft are either fully or partially functional, even with no...
, the aircraft overran the runway, buckling the nose gear. The air-fuel mixture was identified as the cause of the crash of
N501BD in September 1972 when the mixture control broke and Berven had to execute a
forced landingA forced landing is a landing by an aircraft made under factors outside the pilot's control, such as the failure of engines, systems, components or weather which makes continued flight impossible. For a full description of these, see article on Emergency landing...
. Since
N502BD would be ready in two months,
N501BD was not repaired.
However,
N502BD ran into problems of its own. The earlier models used a variable speed belt drive system to transfer power from the engine to the propeller shaft, but this was removed from
N502BD and it suddenly began exhibiting a serious vibration problem. Experts were called in, a freewheel clutch and additional
bearingsA bearing is a device to allow constrained relative motion between two or more parts, typically rotation or linear movement. Bearings may be classified broadly according to the motions they allow and according to their principle of operation as well as by the directions of applied loads they can...
corrected the problem, but it was not until March 26, 1973 that
N502BD flew. From then on the test program seemed to go more smoothly.
By the time the test program neared its conclusion the aircraft had undergone major changes. One victim of the program was the shorter "A" wing, which calculations showed would only improve performance at speeds very close to V
max (the highest available speed). Flight testing also showed the landing speed with the smaller wing was decidedly fast. Split
flapsFlaps are normally hinged surfaces mounted on the trailing edges of the wings of a fixed-wing aircraft to reduce the speed an aircraft can be safely flown at and to increase the angle of descent for landing without increasing air speed. They shorten takeoff and landing distances as well as...
and spoilers had also disappeared. The canopy and
cockpitA cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft. Most modern cockpits are enclosed, except on some small aircraft, and cockpits on large airliners are also physically separated from the cabin...
dimensions had changed, the aircraft had new landing gear systems and a completely new tail section. More ominous was the fact that the engines had already been changed twice. What remained, however, was the basic concept of the fighter-like pusher aircraft which, if anything, had improved in looks.
By this point it seemed the basic design was complete, and Bede turned his attention to other projects. One was a jet-powered BD-5, the
BD-5J, which is detailed below. Another was the
Bede BD-6|-See also:-References:* Fricker, J. "The Mighty Hirth: Out of the Cold and Into the Blue". Flying .*...
, a single-seat version of the BD-4 based on the same Hirth engine being used in the BD-5. Still another was the "new"
Bede BD-7|-See also:-References:* * BD News 1976...
, a two-seat side-by-side version of the BD-5 of which a prototype was built. There was even an attempt to sidestep the engine problem with the
BD-5S, a
gliderA glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the sport of gliding. Some gliders, known as motor gliders are used for gliding and soaring as well, but have engines which can, in some cases, be used for take-off or for extending a flight...
(S for Sailplane) version with lengthened wings and no engine, which prompted
Air Progress magazine to sarcastically note, "
At last, a BD-5 with no engine problems". This glider version did not fly well and the project was scrapped. Bede also decided to seek FAA certification of the
BD-5D as a production aircraft and sell it complete, and began taking $600 deposits for this model.
Deliveries begin
By the middle of 1973 the basic design was complete and the tooling set up for production. The engines were the only part holding up deliveries, so Bede offered to ship the kit with the engine to follow. This was a fairly attractive option; it meant the builder could "get to work" and hopefully complete the airframe by the time the engine arrived, at that point expected in September 1973. Many builders took the company up on the offer, only to receive incomplete kits and plans.
All three Hirth engines were offered; builders could keep the 40 hp design, or "trade up" to the larger 55 hp or 70 hp engines. The latter, which Bede had developed with Hirth, was now considered the baseline engine for the aircraft as the original 40 hp proved to be of insufficient power. In a late 1973 newsletter to prospective owners, Bede suggested the 70 hp model and discouraged use of the smaller engines. Prices had risen throughout the 30 months since the deposits were first taken. Originally priced at $1,799, the base price was raised to $2,599 with the 55 hp, and owners were offered a "trade up" for the difference in price if they had ordered the aircraft with the original 40 hp engine.
When 1974 came around, the engines were still not being delivered in quantity, although some started to arrive early that year. At that point, unexpectedly, Hirth went bankrupt after about 500 of the engines had shipped. Once again the design lacked a suitable engine, but this time the search for a replacement ended with a Xenoah design from Japan. Development of this engine was lengthy, and in the end it would not be certified for export until 1978, although this was not expected at the time.
In the meantime, Bede came up with another novel solution to the problems of converting pilots to the new aircraft. They took an engine-less example and bolted it to the front of a pickup truck on a trapeze, attaching the pilot's throttle control to the truck's. Pilots could test fly the aircraft without danger - if a problem developed the driver of the truck simply hit the brakes.
Deliveries end, Bede bankruptcy
After more than 5,100 kits had been delivered to prospective builders, the kits stopped shipping as well. Although the company was effectively bankrupt at this point, work on the BD-5D continued for some time. The bankruptcy became official in 1979, by which point the BD-5 project was long dead. During the bankruptcy proceedings it was learned that the money ostensibly being used to build kits was instead being spent on a variety of projects. As a result, Bede entered a
consent decreeA consent decree is a final, binding judicial decree or judgment memorializing a voluntary agreement between parties to a suit in return for withdrawal of a criminal charge or an end to a civil litigation...
with the
FTCThe Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
to no longer accept deposits on aircraft for a period of 10 years.
Many owners stored, abandoned, or sold their incomplete kits, but a few hundred diehard builders finished them with a variety of engine solutions designed by third parties and former Bede Aircraft dealers. Having to hunt for an engine was only one problem. The time to build the aircraft was much longer than quoted, as much as 3,000 to 3,500 hours. Some of this was due to the need to fit their selected engine into an airframe designed for the Hirth, which was no longer available. Additionally, the construction techniques had improved somewhat since early Bede designs, but fastening the panels still required drilling, deburring, dimpling, drilling again and deburring again for each rivet. With the original mixed-construction design this would not have been as much of a task, but with the all-metal version this was extremely time consuming. While Bede claimed the aircraft could be put together by anyone in a garage, builders generally agree that doing so without proper construction techniques could result in a potentially dangerous aircraft. One way to overcome that issue is to use a set of properly laid-out jigs to align and drill the pilot holes for the airframe, wings and other components. For all of these reasons, it was some time before completed BD-5s started to appear.
Additionally, some of the kits were shipped with missing parts, adding to the confusion. All of this led to a rash of kits being sold for
fire saleA fire sale is the sale of goods at extremely discounted prices, typically when the seller faces bankruptcy or other impending distress. The term may originally have been based on the sale of goods at a heavy discount due to fire damage...
prices, although this did allow the builders that were looking to complete their kits to do so at bargain prices.
Flying starts
Over the next few years the aircraft garnered a terrible safety record. Although Bede had suggested using the B wings, the earliest kits shipped only with the short "A" wings. All four examples completed with these wings crashed on their first flight, three on takeoff and one lasted long enough to crash on landing. In three of the four crashes, the pilots were killed. Of the first 25 completed, with both the "A" and "B" wings, 14 crashed with 9 fatalities.
Even when examples with the "B" wings were completed, the safety record did not improve greatly. Several crashes in the -5B models were found to have taken place due to engine failure on takeoff, both due to the mix of "oddball" engines as well as endemic cooling problems. The reason this is such an issue with the BD-5 is twofold – the high line of thrust means an engine failure immediately results in an unexpected (for most pilots) nose-up attitude change. Pilots who fail to fly the aircraft first and then attempt to restart the engine inevitably
stallIn fluid dynamics, a stall is a reduction in the lift coefficient generated by a foil as angle of attack increases. This occurs when the critical angle of attack of the foil is exceeded...
, with the associated consequences. This was aggravated by the fact the original wing had a very sharp stall with little warning and a nasty tendency to "snap roll." To make matters worse, a documented manufacturing error in some wing skins delivered to kit builders exacerbated the problem. A rather small
center of gravityIn physics, a center of gravity of a material body is a point that may be used for a summary description of gravitational interactions. In a uniform gravitational field, the center of mass serves as the center of gravity...
range also added to the problems of properly trimming the aircraft.
Further developments
With the demise of the Bede Aircraft Company, the BD-5 entered a sort of limbo while builders completed their kits. The early safety problems and the challenge of adapting a suitable engine exacerbated delays. Over the next few years, however, solutions to most of these problems arrived in one form or another. Many other changes have also been incorporated to improve the original design. Today the BD-5 is a rewarding, if demanding aircraft.
For instance, the problem of finding a suitable engine with 60 to 70 hp yet still weighing under 100 lbs was a serious problem in the 1970s, but today there are a number of "off the shelf" designs in this class. The widely available
Rotax 582|-Specifications :-External links:*...
is a 65 hp engine of 80 lbs in standard configuration, almost tailor-made for the BD-5. Other engines successfully used in BD-5s include the Subaru EA-81, Honda EB-1 and EB-2 (with and without turbocharging), Hirth 2706, AMW 225-3 and
2SI 808|-See also:...
. A BD-5A fitted with a
Rotax 618UL 74 hp two-stroke, two-cylinder water-cooled engine.
holds the current FAI C-1a/0 class speed record (less than 300 kg aircraft) with 351 km/h (just over 218 mph). Problems with the abrupt stall were mostly addressed by Harry Riblett, an airfoil designer who documented a procedure to apply a slight reprofile of the wing root airfoil which softened the stall response of the aircraft without any significant performance degradation. The reprofile presents other unique problems associated with the way it is applied to the wing upper surface, essentially gluing
foamA polyurethane is any polymer composed of a chain of organic units joined by carbamate links. Polyurethane polymers are formed through step-growth polymerization, by reacting a monomer with another monomer in the presence of a catalyst.Polyurethanes are...
to the aluminum skin and covering with fiberglass. Similarly, the small center-of-gravity range has since been addressed with 5.5- to 13-inch stretch kits for the fuselage.
Several companies were formed to help builders complete their kits, and many of the aftermarket modifications were worked into these services. Today, BD Micro Technologies of
Siletz, OregonSiletz is a city in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States. The population was 1,133 at the 2000 census. The city is located next to the Siletz Reservation and is the site of the annual Nesika Illahee Pow Wow in August.-Geography:...
continues to offer kit building support, including new-build kits featuring (optionally) all of these modifications, and even the
BD-5T, a
turbopropA turboprop engine is a type of turbine engine which drives an aircraft propeller using a reduction gear.The gas turbine is designed specifically for this application, with almost all of its output being used to drive the propeller...
version of the BD-5 using a modified
Solar T62-External links:*...
turbine powering a mechanically-controlled variable-pitch propeller. Alturair, Inc. of
San Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
also offers extensive parts and construction assistance services.
Bede Aircraft Company has since re-formed and has been working on several new designs. Bede has hinted at a two-seat tandem version of the aircraft called the "Super BD-5" using a certified aircraft engine and a number of modifications and improvements, but to date nothing other than a preliminary design drawing has been made available.
BD-5J
While the new Hirth engine was being tested, Bede decided to create an unconventional variant of the BD-5 with a small
jet engineA jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...
. The result was the sleek
BD-5J, a 300 mph (480 km/h) aircraft. The design used the Sermel TRS-18-046 turbojet (now Microturbo, a division of
TurbomecaTurbomeca is a French manufacturer of low- and medium-power gas turbine turboshaft engines for helicopters. The company also produces gas turbine engines for aircraft and missiles, as well as turbines for land, industrial and marine applications...
), which produced 225 lbs of thrust and was used on a
Capronithumb|right|300px|[[Caproni Ca.316]] seaplane at its moorings.Caproni was an Italian aircraft manufacturer founded in 1908 by Giovanni Battista "Gianni" Caproni....
certified motorglider design. The original engines were produced under license by Ames Industrial in the USA. The wing was modified to an "intermediate" size between the original A and B wings, with a 17 ft span.
Bob Bishop had purchased 20 BD-5J kits as soon as they had appeared, and many of the flying examples started life in this batch of twenty. Versions from the original batch became a popular airshow fixture. Throughout the 1980s and until 1991,
CoorsThe Coors Brewing Company is a regional division of the world's fifth-largest brewing company, the Canadian Molson Coors Brewing Company and is the third-largest brewer in the United States...
flew two of them as the "Silver Bullets."
BudweiserBudweiser is a 5.0% abv American-style lager introduced in 1876 by Adolphus Busch and one of the highest selling beers in the United States. It is made with up to 30% rice in addition to hops and barley malt. Budweiser is produced in various breweries located around the world...
also had a BD-5J called the "Bud Light Jet", but that contract has long expired and the aircraft was lost as a result of an engine compartment fire from which Bob Bishop successfully bailed out. The aircraft also appeared in the opening sequence of the
James BondJames Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film,
OctopussyOctopussy is the thirteenth entry in the James Bond series, and the sixth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's title is taken from a short story in Ian Fleming's 1966 short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights...
.
Many of these aircraft have since been involved in crashes. The loss of the Bud Light Jet was caused by an incorrectly specified fuel flow sending unit which burst in mid-flight and caused fuel to be sprayed directly into the engine compartment. The fuel ignited when it came in contact with the hot components of the turbojet engine, forcing the pilot to trade speed for altitude, climb and bail out. The aircraft then went into a flat spin and pancaked into the ground, but was sufficiently intact to allow the cause of the fire to be determined relatively quickly.
On June 16, 2006, while practicing for an air show at Carp Airport in
OttawaOttawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
Scott ManningScott Manning was a Canadian athlete and aerobatic pilot of the world's smallest jet, the BD-5J.He grew up in Kitchener, Ontario, and earned a degree in Environmental Studies at the University of Waterloo in 1985...
fatally crashed in his "Stinger Jet," the last BD-5J that remained on the airshow circuit. The
Transportation Safety Board of CanadaThe Transportation Safety Board of Canada , officially the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board is the agency of the Government of Canada responsible for maintaining...
investigated the accident and issued a report assigning the probable cause to the incorrect installation of the right wing, which caused the flap on that wing to suddenly retract in flight and create a "split flap" condition. The aircraft rolled to the right and Manning was unable to recover in time.
Recently, the BD-5J operates in the national security arena. The aircraft is certified by the
United States Department of DefenseThe United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
as a
cruise missileA cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...
surrogate, with Bishop's Aerial Productions offering a version known as the Smart-1 (Small Manned Aerial Radar Target, Model 1). The radar return and general performance characteristics make it a useful aid in training. On June 27, 2006, while flying one of these aircraft, pilot Chuck Lischer, a highly experienced professional air show pilot, impacted trees on final approach to the Ocean City Municipal Airport in
Ocean CityOcean City, sometimes known as OC, or OCMD, is an Atlantic Ocean resort town in Worcester County, Maryland, United States. Ocean City is widely known in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is a frequent destination for vacationers in that area...
,
MarylandMaryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
in a fatal accident.
The BD-5J has also held the Guinness record for the World's Smallest Jet for more than 25 years. Bob Bishop originally garnered the record with one of his jets, and in November 2004 the record changed hands to Juan Jiménez,who purchased the aircraft from the original builder whose BD-5J weighed in at 358.8 lb (162.7 kg) empty weight, 80 lb (36.3 kg) lighter than Bishop's jet and the lightest documented weight for a BD-5.
Variants
BD-5
- Prototype and initial kit production aircraft with short span wings.
BD-5A
- Short span wing production, with "short" 14ft 3in (4.34 m) wings tuned for high speeds and aerobatics.
BD-5B
- Main piston engined production kits with extended span wings of 21ft 6in (6.55 m) wings.
BD-5D
- Factory built aircraft.
BD-5J
- The Jet powered version fitted with a Sermel TRS-18-046 turbojet, derived from gas generators used for starting full sized gas turbine engines.
BD-5S
- A sailplane version with engine removed and extended span wings;flight testing was disappointing and further work on the BD-5S was abandoned.
BD-5T
- A turboprop conversion by BD Micro Technologies of Siletz, Oregon powered by a Solar T62
-External links:*...
turboprop engine.
Acapella 100/200
- An unusual adaptation of the BD-5, the Acapella 100, appeared in the early 1980s. Designer Carl D. Barlow of Option Air Reno mated a BD-5 fuselage with a distinctive twin-boom empennage and fitted it with a 100 hp Continental O-200
The Continental C90 and O-200 are a family of air-cooled, horizontally opposed, four-cylinder, direct-drive aircraft engines of 201 in³ displacement, producing between 90 and 100 horsepower ....
engine. Later, a 200 hp Lycoming IO-360 was fitted, and the wings shortened from 26.5 feet to 19.5 feet, becoming the Acapella 200-S model. The prototype of this aircraft was first flown on June 6, 1980, with pilot Bill Skiliar at the controls. Nonetheless, it flew poorly and was difficult to control. Only the one prototype was built and it was donated to the Experimental Aircraft AssociationThe Experimental Aircraft Association is an international organization of aviation enthusiasts based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Since its inception it has grown internationally with over 160,000 members and about 1,000 chapters worldwide....
's Airventure MuseumThe EAA AirVenture Museum is a museum dedicated to the preservation and display of historical and experimental aircraft located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin adjacent to the Wittman Regional Airport. Paul Poberezny proposed the idea of the EAA Air Museum-Air Education center in August 1958. The current...
in Oshkosh, WisconsinAs of the census of 2000, there were 62,916 people, 24,082 households, and 13,654 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,662.2 people per square mile . There were 25,420 housing units at an average density of 1,075.6 per square mile...
, USA, where it is occasionally placed on display.
Display aircraft
, there were an estimated 150 BD-5s in airworthy condition.
- A BD-5B is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum 's annex at Washington Dulles International Airport in the Chantilly area of Fairfax County, Virginia, United States....
, an annex of the National Air and Space MuseumThe National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world. It was established in 1976. Located in Washington, D.C., United States, it is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and...
at Washington Dulles International AirportWashington Dulles International Airport is a public airport in Dulles, Virginia, 26 miles west of downtown Washington, D.C. The airport serves the Baltimore-Washington-Northern Virginia metropolitan area centered on the District of Columbia. It is named after John Foster Dulles, Secretary of...
in Chantilly, VirginiaChantilly is an unincorporated community located in western Fairfax County and southeastern Loudoun County of Northern Virginia. Recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census designated place , the community population was 23,039 as of the 2010 census -- down from 41,041 in 2000, due to the...
.
- The protoype BD-5 (N500BD) that started as a V-Tail, with a fiberglass fuselage is in the EAA Airventure Museum
The EAA AirVenture Museum is a museum dedicated to the preservation and display of historical and experimental aircraft located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin adjacent to the Wittman Regional Airport. Paul Poberezny proposed the idea of the EAA Air Museum-Air Education center in August 1958. The current...
in Oshkosh, WisconsinAs of the census of 2000, there were 62,916 people, 24,082 households, and 13,654 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,662.2 people per square mile . There were 25,420 housing units at an average density of 1,075.6 per square mile...
.
- The BD-5J from Octopussy
Octopussy is the thirteenth entry in the James Bond series, and the sixth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's title is taken from a short story in Ian Fleming's 1966 short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights...
is on display in the Pima Air and Space Museum in Arizona, though its engine has been removed.
- The Greater Saint Louis Air & Space Museum
The Greater Saint Louis Air & Space Museum is a museum with the mission to preservation and display of historic air and space craft and artifacts, and provide educational programs.-Architecture:...
displays a BD-5 without an engine.
Specifications (BD-5B)
See also
- SAFRAN Microturbo
Safran is a French conglomerate involved in defense, aerospace propulsion and equipment, and security. It is the result of a merger between the propulsion and aerospace equipment group SNECMA and the defense conglomerate SAGEM. Its headquarters are located in Paris.The name Safran, literally...
– Manufacturers of the TRS-18 turbojet engine used on most BD-5J Microjets
External links