Jim Bede
Encyclopedia
James 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 failure
s have kept most of these designs out of widespread use.
. He graduated from West Technical School in Cleveland in 1952 and attended Fenn College and the University of Wichita receiving his Aeronautical Engineer Bachelor of Science Degree in 1957. He started work as a performance engineer with North American Aviation
that year, where he worked on the FJ-4
and A3J
projects for the US Navy.
He stayed at North American only briefly, returning home to Cleveland in 1961 to form Bede Aviation with his father James, in order to produce a kitbuilt aircraft of his design, the Bede BD-1
. At the time, as it is today, the general aviation
market was priced beyond the means of the average consumer. Bede believed the way to solve this problem was to have prospective pilots build their own aircraft, as labor costs were a major part of the overall price of a delivered aircraft.
The BD-1 was a simple and fairly conventional low-wing two-seat design that used some of the latest techniques in aircraft construction that larger companies such as Cessna
generally ignored. The fuselage was built primarily of aluminum honeycomb adhesively bonded together instead of riveted. This not only made the plane light, but also very strong; it was to be fully aerobatic and stressed to 9g. Performance would likewise be excellent, estimated at 135 knots (250 km/h) with a 108 hp Lycoming O-235
engine, compared to a Cessna 152
which reached about 110 knots (165 km/h) with a similar engine.
In order to make the plane more practical for the average owner, the wings could be folded and the aircraft towed behind a car, allowing it to be stored at home in a garage and towed to the airport. The kit, including a rebuilt 65 hp engine, would list for US$2,500. Versions with the more powerful O-235 were also offered, listed at $4,200.
Development dragged on and a lot of money was expended without delivering a final design. A few local Cleveland businessmen took control of the company in 1968 and renamed it Americam Aviation in order to produce the design in complete factory-built form as the American AA-1. A number of changes were later introduced into the design to make it more stable, notably a larger horizontal tail, and then a more forgiving airfoil on the main wing. The AA-1 and follow-on designs became fairly popular, notably the four-seat AA-5 Traveller
. The company was later purchased by Grumman, becoming Grumman American.
. The system used 164,000 holes drilled into the surface of the wing to suck air from the boundary layer
into the interior of the wing, thereby reducing skin friction for better performance, as well as keeping the boundary layer "attached" over a wider variety of angle of attack
s and thereby increasing lift during high-angle flight and doubling maximum lift as a result. Other interesting design features were the use of two engines driving a common pusher
propeller, aluminum honeycomb panels, and fiberglass landing gear struts. After 50 hours of testing the aircraft was donated to the Experimental Aircraft Association
.
The basic layout of the XBD-2 was also used in the BD-3 pusher design, but this did not progress beyond paper studies. An "executive version" was also designed as the BD-7, again without progressing past the early design stage.
After being forced from what became American Aviation, Bede tried his hand at a record breaking around-the-world flight in a specially modified Schweizer 2-32 powered glider
he called the BD-2. He nicknamed the airplane "LOVE", a contraction of "Low Orbit, Very Efficient". The aircraft was modified to dramatically increase fuel tankage to 565 gallons (2,140 l), which included the addition of two large tanks in the fuselage, sealing the wings to turn them into tanks, and adding tankage on the wing-tips as well. It was completed in April 1966 (although other sources say 1968), and while he did not attempt its two-hop-around-the-world trip, Bede set several distance and endurance records, including a 70-hour endurance record in October 1969. This flight only ended after an electrical failure, just under 9,000 miles (14,500 km) being covered by that point.
Bede remained convinced of the validity of the kit built market, and re-formed his company as Bede Aircraft. Here he started the design of an even simpler-to-build aircraft, the Bede BD-4
.
The BD-4 used more conventional construction techniques, based on a simple high-wing design, and had few curved surfaces. Most of the fuselage was flat aluminum sheeting, the only major components with compound curves being the engine cowling and landing gear spats which were made of fiberglass
. One real innovation was the "panel-rib" construction which reduced building time of the wing. Basically the wing was constructed in sections consisting of a rib whose upper edge was "extended" horizontally to become one section of the wing surface as well. The wing was built up by sliding these sections together over the circular spar and fastening them together where they met.
Like the BD-1, the BD-4 offered excellent performance; using the same 108 hp Lycoming O-235 as the AA-1 it could reach 130 knots. It could also be equipped with engines up to 220 hp, which was to top out at 190 knots (350 km/h) with a 170 kt (315 km/h) low-power cruise. The aircraft could be completed with either tricycle or tail-dragger configurations.
The BD-4 first appeared in 1968 and became a "hit". Thousands of plans were sold, hundreds were built, and many are still flying today. Early performance estimates were overstated; even with the large engines speeds were more typically 130-150 kt (240–280 km/h). The aircraft has proven to be very strong, and has an excellent safety record.
The Micro was an extremely small one-seat design that looked more like a jet fighter than prop plane, with the pilot sitting in a semi-reclined position under a large fighter-like plexiglas canopy. The fuselage was originally meant to be constructed primarily from fiberglass panels over an aluminum frame, housing a two-cylinder air-cooled 40 hp engine driving a pusher propeller. The aircraft featured retractable gear, split flaps, spoilers to slow down for landing, and a V-tail for decreased drag in cruise. Two versions were planned, the BD-5A with "short" wings tuned for high speeds, and the BD-5B with 4 ft (1.2 m) longer wings for longer range and powered glider
use. Performance of the BD-5A was predicted to be 210 mph (340 km/h) in cruise.
Although Bede had apparently first looked at the design as early as 1967, work on the BD-4 meant he was not able put any serious effort into it until about 1970. Work on a prototype started in earnest late that year, and they published an information booklet about it in early 1971. Magazine articles appeared even at this early point, most notably a very well known article in Popular Science
. On 24 February 1971 the first $200 deposit to reserve a "place in line" to receive a kit was accepted, with the target shipping date being 24 May 1972. By the end of the year, they had over 4,000 such orders, making it one of the most popular aircraft in modern history. The economics of mass production convinced the designer to switch to hydroformed all-metal aluminum components in place of the earlier fiberglass.
The prototype flew briefly on 12 September 1971, powered by a 36 hp Polaris Industries
snowmobile
engine. The stability of the aircraft with the original V-tail was marginal at best, and clearly needed a redesign. In early 1972 Bede hired Burt Rutan
to head the flight test department, and he quickly introduced a number of improvements. Most notable was a new "conventional" tail design of somewhat larger size, and a slightly lengthened and "pointier" fuselage. Spoilers and split flaps also disappeared during this period.
A most serious problem was the continued failure of the engines. In order to meet weight limitations the design required an engine weighing in at under 100 lb (45 kg). This wouldn't have been too much of a problem given the original goal of using a 40 hp engine, but as the design matured it was realized that much more power would be needed, around 65 to 70 hp. This made the use of any "off-the-shelf" aircraft engine
basically impossible. Instead Bede selected a two-stroke engine which offered much better power-to-weight ratio
s. The plane entered testing with the 440 cc Polaris design, but this was replaced with a similar one from Keikhaefer Aeromarine. This engine proved to be extremely unreliable, and was itself replaced by an engine from Hirth Motoren available in 40, 65 and 70 hp versions.
By this point the basic aircraft design was already long considered complete, and Bede offered the kit with the engine to follow. Many took the company up on the offer, allowing them, hopefully, to simply put the engine into a completed airframe. At that point, Hirth unexpectedly went bankrupt. Once again the design lacked a suitable engine, but this time the search for a replacement ended with a Xenoah design from Japan. Kits continued to ship, but the engine ran into lengthy delays and by the time 5,100 kits had been shipped the company was insolvent.
During this time Bede was also involved in a project to build an inexpensive BD-4-based aircraft for use in Africa, but this project petered out. He also worked on new aircraft designs, including the Bede BD-8
, a single-place acrobatic aircraft. One example was being built when the company went bankrupt, and was purchased and completed by Mike Huffman who showed it during Oshkosh exhibit of 1980. Bede also worked on an ultralight aircraft design, the Bede BD-9 Super Demoiselle, as well as an inflatable hang glider, the Bede Wing.
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, $9 million having disappeared in the process. As a result, Bede entered a consent decree
with the FTC
to no longer accept deposits on aircraft for a period of ten years.
. The result was the BD-5J, a 300 mph (480 km/h) aircraft that looked fast while sitting on the ramp. The design used the Sermel TRS-18-046 turbojet (now Microturbo, a division of Turbomeca
, in itself a division of Groupe Safran), which produced 225 lb of thrust. The original engines were produced under license by Ames Industrial in the US.
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. Many of these were completed over the years, and a number have been involved in crashes, usually due to lack of proper maintenance, insufficient training and knowledge of the systems and their operation, and in one case an incapacitating medical condition which led to a crash where investigators concluded the pilot must have died before the crash.
Versions from the original batch became a popular airshow fixture, and Bishop has gone on to log more than 1,500 hours in his jets, which he now operates for military customers as a cruise missile surrogate. Throughout the 1980s until 1991, Coors
flew two of them as the "Silver Bullets." Budweiser
also had a BD-5J called the Bud Light Jet, but that contract has long expired, the aircraft was lost after an incorrectly specified fuel flow sensor burst in mid-flight, causing a fire in the engine compartment (the pilot traded speed for altitude, bailed out and was unharmed; the aircraft was lost). The aircraft also appeared in the opening sequence of the James Bond
film, Octopussy
.
The last BD-5J that remained on the airshow circuit, Scott Manning's Stinger Jet, crashed on June 16, 2006 at Ottawa/Carp Airport
, Canada, while practicing for an air show, killing pilot Manning. The month of June 2006 was very bad for BD-5J's—an Acrojet Special BD-5J property of Aerial Productions, Inc. impacted trees the morning June 27 on final approach to the Ocean City Municipal Airport in Ocean City, Maryland
, killing pilot Chuck Lischer, a highly experienced professional airshow pilot. The airplane was involved in radar testing as part of its services to the military as a certified cruise missile surrogate.
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 of San Juan, Puerto Rico
, whose BD-5J weighed in at 358.8 lbs (162.8 kg) empty weight, 80 lbs (36 kg) lighter than Bishop's jet. The primary difference that led to the decrease in weight is the use of an earlier Microturbo turbojet, the 022 Couguar, which weighs 68 lbs (31 kg), is simpler than the TRS-18 and does not require a high pressure fuel system with all of its associated hardware.
One of the first was a project with his cousin to produce a car. Simply called the Bede Car, the design used an 80 hp motorcycle engine driving a ducted fan
for propulsion. Built primarily from fiberglass on aluminum, the car was to have weighed just under 1,000 lb (500 kg), less than half that of a normal four seater built of steel. The advantage to the design was a claimed 120 miles/gallon (2.0 L/100 km) fuel economy.
Bede Industries, his cousin's company, intended to introduce the car starting in 1982, but the prototype unit proved the concept infeasible. The engine had very low power at low speeds, so low that it could not even roll up an inclined driveway for parking without "gunning" it. There was some talk of adding electric motors for low speed operation and reversing, but it is not clear if these were fitted. The economy ratings also seemed hopelessly optimistic, based on fuel flow rates of the engine without the actual car. The fate of the prototype is unknown.
Another automobile project followed, this time a smaller motorcycle
-like vehicle. The prototype was based on a production motorcycle, but "stretched" and surrounded with a fiberglass shell that looked somewhat like the BD-5. During its long gestation period it was known as the Autocycle or BD-200, and later as the LiteStar and Pulse. About 360 of these were produced and sold.
. The original idea appears to have come from a friend, Mike Van Wagenen. He formed a company specially for this project, Bede Jet at the Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, MO (just outside St. Louis).
Having learned from the BD-5 that using an untested engine was a bad idea, he selected the smallest production engine he could find in quantity, the General Electric J85
, and wrapped an airframe around it. The resulting design bore some resemblance to the T-38 Talon
/F-5 Freedom Fighter
or the F/A-18 Hornet
(by the tail arrangement), which were powered by two examples of the same engine. Performance estimates were fantastic: after brake release on the runway the 1,580 lb (715 kg) aircraft could climb to 10,000 feet (3050 m) in under 60 seconds, would cruise for 2,000 miles (3,200 km) at up to 45,000 ft (13,700 m) altitude in a 9 psi (465 mm Hg) pressurized cabin, and could reach supersonic
speeds of up to Mach 1.4.
Bede's prototype was completed in 1992 and started testing, although it suffered from a number of minor teething problems. Over the design period the weight had ballooned from 1,600 lb (725 kg) to 2,800 lb (1,270 kg) and fuel tankage had to be cut, which dramatically reduced range from the original 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to a mere 400 to 500 (650 to 800 km). Speed was equally poor; even at full thrust the plane was barely able to reach the transonic
, at Mach 0.83. It was sent to the Reno Air Races
in 1994 to drum up sales, where it suffered from some wrinkling around the vertical stabilizers, indicated too much flex. A fix was designed, but by late in the year the project seems to have ground to a halt.
Van Wagenen had already planned to help kit buyers build the plane, and in December 1993 took over the civilian rights to the program, intending to sell completed versions (as opposed to kits) as the Fox 10. During testing of the first aircraft the vertical stabilizers broke off, killing Van Wagenen. Another example followed with a new owner at the controls, which suffered from a flap failure causing another deadly crash. All work at Fox, now known as Peregrine Flight International, ended. Meanwhile Bede had sold the military rights to Monitor Jet of Canada, but nothing ever came of this. Bede Jet declared bankruptcy in 1997. The only other completed aircraft disintegrated in flight in 2003.
Once again deposits were accepted and held in escrow in order to hold a "place in line" for kit delivery. The introductory price for orders placed before January 1995 was $18,900 with the smallest engine. Additionally Bede signed up dealers (reportedly at $250,000) who would help customers build their planes. A considerable amount of work was put into using the latest construction techniques in order to reduce construction time; the BD-12 consisted of only a few hundred parts in total. When built at one of the sites, it was claimed the plane could be completed and flown away in two weeks. Eventually something on the order of 250 small deposits were received.
By early 1995 the BD-12 prototype had still not flown, and work on the BD-14 had not even started. That summer the almost-complete BD-12 was shipped to Oshkosh, where it generated some buzz. By this time the prototype ended up being seriously tail heavy, and in order to move the center of gravity back to a reasonable position for a test flight, 170 lb (77 kg) of lead was added in the nose. The prototype finally flew in the fall of 1995, but was almost completely destroyed on its first flight due to marginal stability. The plane did not appear at the 1996 Oshkosh show, although it is still claimed the program is continuing.
Months later it became clear that Bede's company was once again in financial trouble. They were evicted from their hangar
in Chesterfield, and moved to a new space in Alton, IL.
The BD-17 was first announced in 2000 and was even simpler than the BD-12, consisting of only 110 parts. It entered flight testing in 2003 and proved to have excellent flight qualities.
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
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 failure
Business failure
Business failure refers to a company ceasing operations following its inability to make a profit or to bring in enough revenue to cover its expenses...
s have kept most of these designs out of widespread use.
Bede Aviation
Bede was raised in Cleveland, OhioCleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
. He graduated from West Technical School in Cleveland in 1952 and attended Fenn College and the University of Wichita receiving his Aeronautical Engineer Bachelor of Science Degree in 1957. He started work as a performance engineer with North American Aviation
North American Aviation
North American Aviation was a major US aerospace manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and the XB-70, as well as Apollo Command and Service...
that year, where he worked on the FJ-4
FJ-4 Fury
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Andrade, John. U.S.Military Aircraft Designations and Serials since 1909. Hinckley, UK: Midland Counties Publications, 1979. ISBN 0-904597-22-9....
and A3J
A-5 Vigilante
The North American A-5 Vigilante was a carrier-based supersonic bomber designed for the United States Navy. Its service in the nuclear strike role to replace the A-3 Skywarrior was very short; however, as the RA-5C, it saw extensive service during the Vietnam War in the tactical strike...
projects for the US Navy.
He stayed at North American only briefly, returning home to Cleveland in 1961 to form Bede Aviation with his father James, in order to produce a kitbuilt aircraft of his design, the Bede BD-1
Bede BD-1
The BD-1 was a two-seat, single-engine, low-wing monoplane, the first design of American aeronautical engineer Jim Bede. The BD-1 was designed in 1960 as a kit-built aircraft intended for home assembly by amateur builders. Design goals included a kit price of $US 2500, including a rebuilt...
. At the time, as it is today, the general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...
market was priced beyond the means of the average consumer. Bede believed the way to solve this problem was to have prospective pilots build their own aircraft, as labor costs were a major part of the overall price of a delivered aircraft.
The BD-1 was a simple and fairly conventional low-wing two-seat design that used some of the latest techniques in aircraft construction that larger companies such as Cessna
Cessna
The Cessna Aircraft Company is an airplane manufacturing corporation headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, USA. Their main products are general aviation aircraft. Although they are the most well known for their small, piston-powered aircraft, they also produce business jets. The company is a subsidiary...
generally ignored. The fuselage was built primarily of aluminum honeycomb adhesively bonded together instead of riveted. This not only made the plane light, but also very strong; it was to be fully aerobatic and stressed to 9g. Performance would likewise be excellent, estimated at 135 knots (250 km/h) with a 108 hp Lycoming O-235
Lycoming O-235
The Lycoming O-235 is a family of four-cylinder, air-cooled, horizontally opposed piston aircraft engines that produce , derived from the earlier O-233 engine....
engine, compared to a Cessna 152
Cessna 152
The Cessna 152 is an American two-seat, fixed tricycle gear, general aviation airplane, used primarily for flight training and personal use.-Development:...
which reached about 110 knots (165 km/h) with a similar engine.
In order to make the plane more practical for the average owner, the wings could be folded and the aircraft towed behind a car, allowing it to be stored at home in a garage and towed to the airport. The kit, including a rebuilt 65 hp engine, would list for US$2,500. Versions with the more powerful O-235 were also offered, listed at $4,200.
Development dragged on and a lot of money was expended without delivering a final design. A few local Cleveland businessmen took control of the company in 1968 and renamed it Americam Aviation in order to produce the design in complete factory-built form as the American AA-1. A number of changes were later introduced into the design to make it more stable, notably a larger horizontal tail, and then a more forgiving airfoil on the main wing. The AA-1 and follow-on designs became fairly popular, notably the four-seat AA-5 Traveller
Grumman American AA-5
The US Grumman American AA-5 series is a family of all-metal, 4-seat, light aircraft used for touring and training. The line includes the original American Aviation AA-5 Traveler, the Grumman American AA-5 Traveler, AA-5A Cheetah, and AA-5B Tiger, the Gulfstream American AA-5A Cheetah, and AA-5B...
. The company was later purchased by Grumman, becoming Grumman American.
Record flights and experiments
During the BD-1 design Bede also worked on a number of other designs. One of these was the XBD-2, an experimental boundary layer control design based on a system designed by the Aerophysics Department of Mississippi State UniversityMississippi State University
The Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science commonly known as Mississippi State University is a land-grant university located in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, United States, partially in the town of Starkville and partially in an unincorporated area...
. The system used 164,000 holes drilled into the surface of the wing to suck air from the boundary layer
Boundary layer
In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is that layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a bounding surface where effects of viscosity of the fluid are considered in detail. In the Earth's atmosphere, the planetary boundary layer is the air layer near the ground affected by diurnal...
into the interior of the wing, thereby reducing skin friction for better performance, as well as keeping the boundary layer "attached" over a wider variety of angle of attack
Angle of attack
Angle of attack is a term used in fluid dynamics to describe the angle between a reference line on a lifting body and the vector representing the relative motion between the lifting body and the fluid through which it is moving...
s and thereby increasing lift during high-angle flight and doubling maximum lift as a result. Other interesting design features were the use of two engines driving a common pusher
Pusher configuration
In a craft with a pusher configuration the propeller are mounted behind their respective engine. According to Bill Gunston, a "pusher propeller" is one mounted behind engine so that drive shaft is in compression...
propeller, aluminum honeycomb panels, and fiberglass landing gear struts. After 50 hours of testing the aircraft was donated to the Experimental Aircraft Association
Experimental Aircraft Association
The 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....
.
The basic layout of the XBD-2 was also used in the BD-3 pusher design, but this did not progress beyond paper studies. An "executive version" was also designed as the BD-7, again without progressing past the early design stage.
After being forced from what became American Aviation, Bede tried his hand at a record breaking around-the-world flight in a specially modified Schweizer 2-32 powered glider
Glider (sailplane)
A 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...
he called the BD-2. He nicknamed the airplane "LOVE", a contraction of "Low Orbit, Very Efficient". The aircraft was modified to dramatically increase fuel tankage to 565 gallons (2,140 l), which included the addition of two large tanks in the fuselage, sealing the wings to turn them into tanks, and adding tankage on the wing-tips as well. It was completed in April 1966 (although other sources say 1968), and while he did not attempt its two-hop-around-the-world trip, Bede set several distance and endurance records, including a 70-hour endurance record in October 1969. This flight only ended after an electrical failure, just under 9,000 miles (14,500 km) being covered by that point.
Bede Aircraft
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...
.
The BD-4 used more conventional construction techniques, based on a simple high-wing design, and had few curved surfaces. Most of the fuselage was flat aluminum sheeting, the only major components with compound curves being the engine cowling and landing gear spats which were made of fiberglass
Fiberglass
Glass 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...
. One real innovation was the "panel-rib" construction which reduced building time of the wing. Basically the wing was constructed in sections consisting of a rib whose upper edge was "extended" horizontally to become one section of the wing surface as well. The wing was built up by sliding these sections together over the circular spar and fastening them together where they met.
Like the BD-1, the BD-4 offered excellent performance; using the same 108 hp Lycoming O-235 as the AA-1 it could reach 130 knots. It could also be equipped with engines up to 220 hp, which was to top out at 190 knots (350 km/h) with a 170 kt (315 km/h) low-power cruise. The aircraft could be completed with either tricycle or tail-dragger configurations.
The BD-4 first appeared in 1968 and became a "hit". Thousands of plans were sold, hundreds were built, and many are still flying today. Early performance estimates were overstated; even with the large engines speeds were more typically 130-150 kt (240–280 km/h). The aircraft has proven to be very strong, and has an excellent safety record.
The BD-5
Even while the BD-4 was maturing, Bede turned to a more ambitious design, the BD-5 Micro.The Micro was an extremely small one-seat design that looked more like a jet fighter than prop plane, with the pilot sitting in a semi-reclined position under a large fighter-like plexiglas canopy. The fuselage was originally meant to be constructed primarily from fiberglass panels over an aluminum frame, housing a two-cylinder air-cooled 40 hp engine driving a pusher propeller. The aircraft featured retractable gear, split flaps, spoilers to slow down for landing, and a V-tail for decreased drag in cruise. Two versions were planned, the BD-5A with "short" wings tuned for high speeds, and the BD-5B with 4 ft (1.2 m) longer wings for longer range and powered glider
Glider (sailplane)
A 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. Performance of the BD-5A was predicted to be 210 mph (340 km/h) in cruise.
Although Bede had apparently first looked at the design as early as 1967, work on the BD-4 meant he was not able put any serious effort into it until about 1970. Work on a prototype started in earnest late that year, and they published an information booklet about it in early 1971. Magazine articles appeared even at this early point, most notably a very well known article in Popular Science
Popular Science
Popular 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...
. On 24 February 1971 the first $200 deposit to reserve a "place in line" to receive a kit was accepted, with the target shipping date being 24 May 1972. By the end of the year, they had over 4,000 such orders, making it one of the most popular aircraft in modern history. The economics of mass production convinced the designer to switch to hydroformed all-metal aluminum components in place of the earlier fiberglass.
The prototype flew briefly on 12 September 1971, powered by a 36 hp Polaris Industries
Polaris Industries
Polaris 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...
snowmobile
Snowmobile
A 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 stability of the aircraft with the original V-tail was marginal at best, and clearly needed a redesign. In early 1972 Bede hired Burt Rutan
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, and he quickly introduced a number of improvements. Most notable was a new "conventional" tail design of somewhat larger size, and a slightly lengthened and "pointier" fuselage. Spoilers and split flaps also disappeared during this period.
A most serious problem was the continued failure of the engines. In order to meet weight limitations the design required an engine weighing in at under 100 lb (45 kg). This wouldn't have been too much of a problem given the original goal of using a 40 hp engine, but as the design matured it was realized that much more power would be needed, around 65 to 70 hp. This made the use of any "off-the-shelf" aircraft engine
Aircraft engine
An aircraft engine is the component of the propulsion system for an aircraft that generates mechanical power. Aircraft engines are almost always either lightweight piston engines or gas turbines...
basically impossible. Instead Bede selected a two-stroke engine which offered much better power-to-weight ratio
Power-to-weight ratio
Power-to-weight ratio is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measurement of actual performance of any engine or power sources...
s. The plane entered testing with the 440 cc Polaris design, but this was replaced with a similar one from Keikhaefer Aeromarine. This engine proved to be extremely unreliable, and was itself replaced by an engine from Hirth Motoren available in 40, 65 and 70 hp versions.
By this point the basic aircraft design was already long considered complete, and Bede offered the kit with the engine to follow. Many took the company up on the offer, allowing them, hopefully, to simply put the engine into a completed airframe. At that point, Hirth unexpectedly went bankrupt. Once again the design lacked a suitable engine, but this time the search for a replacement ended with a Xenoah design from Japan. Kits continued to ship, but the engine ran into lengthy delays and by the time 5,100 kits had been shipped the company was insolvent.
During this time Bede was also involved in a project to build an inexpensive BD-4-based aircraft for use in Africa, but this project petered out. He also worked on new aircraft designs, including the Bede BD-8
Bede BD-8
|-See also:-References:* Sport Aviation .*...
, a single-place acrobatic aircraft. One example was being built when the company went bankrupt, and was purchased and completed by Mike Huffman who showed it during Oshkosh exhibit of 1980. Bede also worked on an ultralight aircraft design, the Bede BD-9 Super Demoiselle, as well as an inflatable hang glider, the Bede Wing.
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, $9 million having disappeared in the process. As a result, Bede entered a consent decree
Consent decree
A 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 FTC
Federal Trade Commission
The 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 ten years.
BD-5J
While the new Xenoah engine was being tested, Bede decided to create an unconventional variant of the BD-5 with a small jet engineJet engine
A 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 BD-5J, a 300 mph (480 km/h) aircraft that looked fast while sitting on the ramp. The design used the Sermel TRS-18-046 turbojet (now Microturbo, a division of Turbomeca
Turbomeca
Turbomeca 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...
, in itself a division of Groupe Safran), which produced 225 lb of thrust. The original engines were produced under license by Ames Industrial in the US.
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. Many of these were completed over the years, and a number have been involved in crashes, usually due to lack of proper maintenance, insufficient training and knowledge of the systems and their operation, and in one case an incapacitating medical condition which led to a crash where investigators concluded the pilot must have died before the crash.
Versions from the original batch became a popular airshow fixture, and Bishop has gone on to log more than 1,500 hours in his jets, which he now operates for military customers as a cruise missile surrogate. Throughout the 1980s until 1991, Coors
Coors Brewing Company
The 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." Budweiser
Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch)
Budweiser 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, the aircraft was lost after an incorrectly specified fuel flow sensor burst in mid-flight, causing a fire in the engine compartment (the pilot traded speed for altitude, bailed out and was unharmed; the aircraft was lost). The aircraft also appeared in the opening sequence of the James Bond
James Bond
James 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, Octopussy
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...
.
The last BD-5J that remained on the airshow circuit, Scott Manning's Stinger Jet, crashed on June 16, 2006 at Ottawa/Carp Airport
Ottawa/Carp Airport
Ottawa/Carp Airport or Carp Airport, , is located south of Carp, Ontario, Canada, a small village that is now part of Ottawa. Carp is the only airport in the Ottawa area where private hangar space is readily available, so it is a popular home base for local general aviation pilots.The airport had...
, Canada, while practicing for an air show, killing pilot Manning. The month of June 2006 was very bad for BD-5J's—an Acrojet Special BD-5J property of Aerial Productions, Inc. impacted trees the morning June 27 on final approach to the Ocean City Municipal Airport in Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean 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...
, killing pilot Chuck Lischer, a highly experienced professional airshow pilot. The airplane was involved in radar testing as part of its services to the military as a certified cruise missile surrogate.
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 of San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
, whose BD-5J weighed in at 358.8 lbs (162.8 kg) empty weight, 80 lbs (36 kg) lighter than Bishop's jet. The primary difference that led to the decrease in weight is the use of an earlier Microturbo turbojet, the 022 Couguar, which weighs 68 lbs (31 kg), is simpler than the TRS-18 and does not require a high pressure fuel system with all of its associated hardware.
Bede Design
After Bede Aviation collapsed, Bede took on a number of engineering projects under Bede Design.One of the first was a project with his cousin to produce a car. Simply called the Bede Car, the design used an 80 hp motorcycle engine driving a ducted fan
Ducted fan
A ducted fan is a propulsion arrangement whereby a fan, which is a type of propeller, is mounted within a cylindrical shroud or duct. The duct reduces losses in thrust from the tip vortices of the fan, and varying the cross-section of the duct allows the designer to advantageously affect the...
for propulsion. Built primarily from fiberglass on aluminum, the car was to have weighed just under 1,000 lb (500 kg), less than half that of a normal four seater built of steel. The advantage to the design was a claimed 120 miles/gallon (2.0 L/100 km) fuel economy.
Bede Industries, his cousin's company, intended to introduce the car starting in 1982, but the prototype unit proved the concept infeasible. The engine had very low power at low speeds, so low that it could not even roll up an inclined driveway for parking without "gunning" it. There was some talk of adding electric motors for low speed operation and reversing, but it is not clear if these were fitted. The economy ratings also seemed hopelessly optimistic, based on fuel flow rates of the engine without the actual car. The fate of the prototype is unknown.
Another automobile project followed, this time a smaller motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
-like vehicle. The prototype was based on a production motorcycle, but "stretched" and surrounded with a fiberglass shell that looked somewhat like the BD-5. During its long gestation period it was known as the Autocycle or BD-200, and later as the LiteStar and Pulse. About 360 of these were produced and sold.
Bede Jet
Within weeks of the FTC Consent Decree expiring in 1989, Bede announced the design of a new two-seat high-speed jet, the Bede BD-10Bede BD-10
The Bede BD-10 was Jim Bede's attempt to introduce the world's first kit-built jet-powered general aviation supersonic aircraft. After several years of testing and modifications, the project was taken over by investors in order to produce fully completed civilian and military training aircraft, but...
. The original idea appears to have come from a friend, Mike Van Wagenen. He formed a company specially for this project, Bede Jet at the Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, MO (just outside St. Louis).
Having learned from the BD-5 that using an untested engine was a bad idea, he selected the smallest production engine he could find in quantity, the General Electric J85
General Electric J85
-External links:**...
, and wrapped an airframe around it. The resulting design bore some resemblance to the T-38 Talon
T-38 Talon
The Northrop T-38 Talon is a twin-engine supersonic jet trainer. It was the world's first supersonic trainer and is also the most produced. The T-38 remains in service as of 2011 in air forces throughout the world....
/F-5 Freedom Fighter
F-5 Freedom Fighter
The Northrop F-5A/B Freedom Fighter and the F-5E/F Tiger II are part of a family of widely-used light supersonic fighter aircraft, designed and built by Northrop...
or the F/A-18 Hornet
F/A-18 Hornet
The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole fighter jet, designed to dogfight and attack ground targets . Designed by McDonnell Douglas and Northrop, the F/A-18 was derived from the latter's YF-17 in the 1970s for use by the United States Navy and...
(by the tail arrangement), which were powered by two examples of the same engine. Performance estimates were fantastic: after brake release on the runway the 1,580 lb (715 kg) aircraft could climb to 10,000 feet (3050 m) in under 60 seconds, would cruise for 2,000 miles (3,200 km) at up to 45,000 ft (13,700 m) altitude in a 9 psi (465 mm Hg) pressurized cabin, and could reach supersonic
Supersonic
Supersonic speed is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound . For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C this speed is approximately 343 m/s, 1,125 ft/s, 768 mph or 1,235 km/h. Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound are often...
speeds of up to Mach 1.4.
Bede's prototype was completed in 1992 and started testing, although it suffered from a number of minor teething problems. Over the design period the weight had ballooned from 1,600 lb (725 kg) to 2,800 lb (1,270 kg) and fuel tankage had to be cut, which dramatically reduced range from the original 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to a mere 400 to 500 (650 to 800 km). Speed was equally poor; even at full thrust the plane was barely able to reach the transonic
Transonic
Transonic speed is an aeronautics term referring to the condition of flight in which a range of velocities of airflow exist surrounding and flowing past an air vehicle or an airfoil that are concurrently below, at, and above the speed of sound in the range of Mach 0.8 to 1.2, i.e. 600–900 mph...
, at Mach 0.83. It was sent to the Reno Air Races
Reno Air Races
The Reno Air Races, also known as the National Championship Air Races, take place each September at the Reno Stead Airport a few miles north of Reno, Nevada, USA...
in 1994 to drum up sales, where it suffered from some wrinkling around the vertical stabilizers, indicated too much flex. A fix was designed, but by late in the year the project seems to have ground to a halt.
Van Wagenen had already planned to help kit buyers build the plane, and in December 1993 took over the civilian rights to the program, intending to sell completed versions (as opposed to kits) as the Fox 10. During testing of the first aircraft the vertical stabilizers broke off, killing Van Wagenen. Another example followed with a new owner at the controls, which suffered from a flap failure causing another deadly crash. All work at Fox, now known as Peregrine Flight International, ended. Meanwhile Bede had sold the military rights to Monitor Jet of Canada, but nothing ever came of this. Bede Jet declared bankruptcy in 1997. The only other completed aircraft disintegrated in flight in 2003.
Bede Aircraft, again
During the BD-10 project, Bede also started the design of updated BD-5's with two and four seats as the Bede BD-12 and Bede BD-14 respectively. They were designed under the reformed Bede Aircraft, also in Chesterfield.Once again deposits were accepted and held in escrow in order to hold a "place in line" for kit delivery. The introductory price for orders placed before January 1995 was $18,900 with the smallest engine. Additionally Bede signed up dealers (reportedly at $250,000) who would help customers build their planes. A considerable amount of work was put into using the latest construction techniques in order to reduce construction time; the BD-12 consisted of only a few hundred parts in total. When built at one of the sites, it was claimed the plane could be completed and flown away in two weeks. Eventually something on the order of 250 small deposits were received.
By early 1995 the BD-12 prototype had still not flown, and work on the BD-14 had not even started. That summer the almost-complete BD-12 was shipped to Oshkosh, where it generated some buzz. By this time the prototype ended up being seriously tail heavy, and in order to move the center of gravity back to a reasonable position for a test flight, 170 lb (77 kg) of lead was added in the nose. The prototype finally flew in the fall of 1995, but was almost completely destroyed on its first flight due to marginal stability. The plane did not appear at the 1996 Oshkosh show, although it is still claimed the program is continuing.
Months later it became clear that Bede's company was once again in financial trouble. They were evicted from their hangar
Hangar
A hangar is a closed structure to hold aircraft or spacecraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but other materials such as wood and concrete are also sometimes used...
in Chesterfield, and moved to a new space in Alton, IL.
BedeCorp
Bede has once again re-formed a new design shop as BedeAmerica Aerosport. In 1998 he appeared at Oshkosh promoting a BD-16, a six-place version of the BD-4. However these plans apparently did not generate a lot of interest, and he has since moved on to the single-seat BD-17 Nugget and two-seat BD-18, both based on a layout similar to the original BD-1 but dramatically updated.The BD-17 was first announced in 2000 and was even simpler than the BD-12, consisting of only 110 parts. It entered flight testing in 2003 and proved to have excellent flight qualities.
External links
- The Jim Bede Story – "Official" bio