The Bede BD5 was the kit aircraft that firmly established Bede's
reputation as the 'bad boy of the kit building industry'.
Few airplanes in the history of
aviation have fired public imagination like the
build-it-at-home-from-a-kit BD-5. It promised tremendous performance
at a minimal cost in money to purchase and operate, and time and
space to build. James R. Bede had ambitious plans for this aircraft.
His poor execution of those plans, and the ultimate failure of the
original BD-5 concept, should not obscure the many original and
innovative aspects of this design.
By 1970, Bede (pronounced 'beedee')
had earned a reputation for designing and flying innovative,
high-performance aircraft. Factories produced more than 1,700
examples of his BD-1 (production designation AA-1). This was the
first light aircraft mass-produced using bonded (glued) metal
construction. A BD-2 soon followed. Bede designed this airplane to
fly non-stop around the world without refuelling. He did not make
the flight but the project stirred considerable interest among
designers and pilots. Bede pushed the kitplane design envelope again
with the BD-4 by building the wing using his patented "panel-rib"
process. The four-seat BD-4 was moderately successful and Bede sold
about 600 kits. This encouraged him to push the design and
performance envelope further on his next project.
Bede began to refine the concept
of the BD-5 as early as 1967 but the demands of other projects
slowed the work. By 1970, he had progressed far enough to begin
selling information packets and on February 24, 1971, he accepted
the first deposit from a prospective builder to reserve a BD-5 kit.
The airplane had yet to fly, but marketing hype had already
displaced common sense in the minds of many homebuilt enthusiasts.
Jim Bede first flew the BD-5
prototype on September 12, 1971. Public interest in the tiny
speedster soared and by December, the company had received 4,000 kit
orders. A kit consisted of different materials that the builder
formed, cut, drilled, bonded, or riveted into a finished BD-5. The
first kits cost $2,100. For toiling about 300-400 hours (assembly
time claimed in the advertisements as a rough average, but one owner
spent 7 years and $20,000), a builder could expect to finish an
airplane that looked and flew like no other.
Pictures of the prototype showed a
sharp, smooth nose that flowed back to an exotic, vee-tail. The
single-seat fuselage was miniscule, barely 4 m (13 ft) long, but
this appealed to homebuilders who were loath to take on projects
that required more space than a garage or apartment. The wing was
mounted low and spanned just over 6.4 m (21 ft) and the airplane
took-off and landed on tiny, retractable, tricycle landing gear. The
factory offered a set of shorter wings (4.3 m/14 ft 4 in span) but
almost no one flew with them. With the long wings attached, the
airplane officially became the BD-5B.
In the hands of a qualified pilot,
the BD-5 could perform a full range of aerobatic manoeuvres.
Virtually everyone who flew the '5 called the handling qualities at
speed and altitude delightful. Control pressures were very light
because Bede plumbed the control circuits with push-rods supported
on ball bearings. One pilot described how he simply 'thought'
himself into a turn, without consciously moving the stick or rudder
pedals. On takeoff, these same characteristics could cause
inexperienced pilots to over-rotate the nose on takeoff to
dangerously high angles. There was no fix for this characteristic
and pilots new to flying the BD-5 receive stern warnings to use tiny
movements on the control stick. Bede fixed the lack of directional
stability as soon as flight-testing began late in September 1971. A
conventional horizontal stabilizer, elevator, vertical fin and
rudder replaced the vee-tail.
Maximum cruise speed was
impressive at 322 kph (200 mph). The BD-5 weighed about 270 kg (600
lb), and it could fly slowly, and even soar like a motorglider,
according to the slick brochures. Bede claimed that the powerplant
sipped just 4 gallons per hour of fuel to give the BD-5 the range to
fly about 1,610 km (1,000 miles) at a ceiling of 4,256 m (14,000
ft). After some practice, a competent pilot could land or take off
in 152-182 m (500-600 ft).
To enable a BD-5 to achieve this
performance level, a very special engine had to propel the kitplane.
Such an engine did not exist. Initially, the BD-5 came with a
two-cylinder, two-cycle, in-line and air-cooled Keikaefer power
plant that made 40 horsepower. This engine proved unreliable so Bede
began a frantic hunt for a substitute. He tried the Hirth two-cycle
engine and announced that a builder could order one of three models
for the BD-5: a 40, 55, or 70 horsepower version. In addition to the
kit, Bede announced a full production version designated the BD-5D,
and promised to certify this model and sell it for $4,400, but the
factory never built this model. The factory did complete about 3,000
Most builders found the kits
extremely difficult to work on. They had to fabricate many complex
parts including the drive system required to transmit power from the
engine to the propeller. After Hirth announced that the firm could
not supply enough power plants to meet projected kit sales, the most
difficult problem for BD-5 kit owners remained the engine and Bede
never found a suitable alternative. He tried motors from Polaris,
Zenoah, Kawasaki, and others without success.
By the late 1970s, Bede had run
out of time to save the BD-5. Many of the people who bought kits
began to sell them at a fraction of initial cost. Hoping to generate
cash, Bede dabbled briefly with a sailplane version, and his
jet-powered BD-5 became popular at airshows. By 1979, Bede was
bankrupt and the BD-5 kitplane saga ended. Budd Davisson summed it
up well when he said: "Too much was said early in the game, promises
were made, performance figures quoted and money taken. So, when
things didn't go like clockwork, the BD buying public got a little
bit ticked off."
To this day, the BD-5 remains a
compelling airplane. About 150 were flying in 2002, primarily
because entrepreneurs formed several companies to supply knowledge,
experience, and hardware to BD-5 builders. The Bede factory shipped
kits that consisted of little more than raw materials but no engines
and drive trains. During the mid-1970s, Keith Hinshaw organized Bede-Micro
Aviation in San Jose, California, and focused the business on
supplying a solution to the engine problem, and supplying parts and
assistance to builders. Keith was a former BD-5 owner and dealer. He
and his staff had one workable solution to the engine problem, a
turbo-charged Honda automobile engine. This engine is installed in
the NASM BD-5. Bede-Micro improved other aspects of the BD-5. They
designed and sold parts and plans to strengthen the wings and the
top of the rudder, improved the landing gear and flaps, and stretch
the fuselage 5 inches to accommodate different engines. Bede-Micro
was still providing support, parts, and upgraded kits for the BD-5
A jet version was developed and
became famous for flying through a hanger in a James Bond movie
It is not permitted to fly this aircraft in the UK