HISTORY
Bede 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 (pusher propeller
driven) and BD-5J (turbojet
driven). The BD-5J has held
the Guinness record as the
World's Smallest Jet
Aircraft for more than a
quarter century. Versions of
it saw use in various
Budweiser commercials (the
Bud Light Jet, which was
lost in an inflight fire and
crash unrelated to airshow
work). The tiny jet also
appeared in two James Bond
movies;
Octopussy
starring Sir Roger Moore,
and later in a cameo
appearance, hanging from the
wall of Q's workshop in
Die Another Day
starring Pierce Brosnan as
Agent 007.
A
later design, the BD-10
powered by the same engine
(GE J-85) used on Lear Jet
business jets, claimed to be
the first supersonic
personal jet built from a
kit. Three aircraft were
built. The BD-10 prototype
aircraft which flew over 200
hours at the Mojave Flight
Test Center in California,
and was flown by such
notables as General Chuck
Yeager, Hoot Gibson, Bob
Hoover, John Travolta, Jerry
Seinfeld, and Victor
Belenko. The second
aircraft was built at the
Peregrine Aircraft Company
in Minden Nevada. During a
flight Test at Douglas
County Airport, the aircraft
far exceeded the maximum
safe flight test speed, and
broke up inflight, killing
pilot Mike VanWagonen. It
was estimated that this
aircraft experienced
catastrophic vertical
stabilizer failure, due to
the excess speed during the
flight. The prototype is
known to be flying today,
and a second airworthy
example has just been
acquired by the Canadian
Flying Machine Museum. None
of them ever broke the sound
barrier. This aircraft was
featured on the cover of
Aviation Week in June 1994,
with a full pilots report.
Source: Wikipedia
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