Bede BD-5

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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.

BD-5B Built, Owned and Flown by retired USAF pilot Dan Ross

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.

Guinness Record Holder, The World's Smallest Jet, N3038V

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].

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.

A BD-5J crashed at Carp Airport west of Ottawa on June 16, 2006, while practicing for an upcoming airshow. The pilot, Scott Manning was killed in the accident. [link]

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. A Smart-1 crash on June 27 2006 killed the well-known airshow pilot Charles Lischer of Cameron Park, California. The aircraft crashed on approach into woods just short of the Ocean City Municipal Airport in Ocean City, Maryland. Lischer was returning after having completed simulating a Chinese Seersucker cruise missile in war games staged along the Atlantic coast. On the 22nd of June Lischer flew three of five sorties over Washington, D.C. in homeland defense exercises testing ground sensors.

Specifications (BD-5B)

General characteristics

Crew: one pilot no passengers
Length: 12 in 9/16 (3.88 m)
Wingspan: 14 ft to 21 ft 6 in (6.55 m)
Height: 5 ft 2 in ( m)
Wing area: 47 ft² (4.4 m²)
Empty: 358 lb (178 kg) and up
Loaded: 700 lb (340 kg) to 1100 lb (530 kg)
Maximum takeoff: 1100 lb (530 kg)
Powerplant: various piston engines, Hirth and turbo Honda engines were common

Performance

Maximum speed: 200+ mph (320+ km/h) recip, 350 mph (565 km/h) jet
Range: 720+ miles (1,152+ km) recip, 300+ miles (500 km) jet
Service ceiling: 12,000 ft (3,658 m) recip, 23,000 ft (7,010 m) jet
Rate of climb: 1,900 ft/min (579 m/min) recip, 4,000 ft/min (1,219 m/min) jet
Wing loading: 18 lb/ft² (85.7 kg/m²) reciprocating
Power/Mass: 0.08 hp/lb (0.13 kW/kg) reciprocating

External links

Lists of Aircraft | Aircraft manufacturers | Aircraft engines | Aircraft engine manufacturers

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