https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede_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 these projects were
never realized. Five examples were built in total and three of these crashed.
Only two examples remain, both unflyable.
The genesis of the BD-10 came about after the Bede BD-5 project in the 1970s,
when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) entered Jim Bede into a consent decree,
forbidding him from accepting down payments for aircraft for a period of ten
years. Bede worked on numerous other projects during this period with
preliminary design begun by 1983 on a small jet. Within weeks of the agreement
expiring in 1989, he announced plans for the BD-10J under the aegis of Bede Jet
Corporation, at the Spirit of St. Louis Airport.
The BD-5's failure was due largely to the unavailability of a suitable engine;
during the BD-5's history one engine company after another either exited the
engine business or went bankrupt. Bede started the new design by selecting a
suitable commonly available engine and then designing the aircraft around it.
The selected engine was the General Electric J85, widely used in a variety of
military aircraft and virtually identical to its civilian counterpart, the
General Electric CJ-610, available both in new-build and second-hand markets.
Perhaps the best known military applications of the J85 are the twin-engined
T-38 Talon and the closely related F-5 Freedom Fighter, with the most familiar
civilian application being the early Learjet models. The new BD-10J design bore
a strong resemblance to the T-38/F-5, although it was much smaller and used only
a single engine. The Williams FJ44 and Pratt & Whitney JT12 were also offered as
options.
The resulting design featured a shoulder-mounted cropped-delta wing with just
over 21 feet (6.4 m) of span and a leading-edge sweep of about 30 degrees.
Cropped-delta elevators were also used, although featuring a much greater 50
degree leading sweep. The large canopy extended a fair distance above the
fuselage midline, in relative terms, so twin rudders were used on either side to
provide clean airflow. All of the controls were strictly mechanical, using
pushrods. In order to deal with the increasing control stiffness with increased
speed, the design initially specified two control sticks, a small side-stick
with limited leverage for low speeds, and a full-sized one mounted in front of
the seat with much more leverage for high speeds.
Role
Recreational aircraft
Manufacturer
Bede Jet Corporation
Fox 10 Corporation
Peregrine Flight International
Monitor Jet
Designer
Jim Bede
First flight
8 July 1992
Status
Experimental
Number built
5
The first prototype, N2BD, was completed in 1991, the first damaged occurred
before the aircraft was completed. A newly minted A&P Licensed mechanic didn't
follow the specifications for the static landing gear strut. He used thin walled
aluminum pipe, which failed to hold the weight of the aircraft. This caused the
twin booms to twist and the vertical stabilizers to be canted at different
angles. This structural damage was never fixed and wasn't noticed unless looked
head-on. The aircraft started testing at Mojave in July 1992. Early in testing
it suffered more minor damage when the gear failed on landing, but the damage
was repaired and it returned to flying. However, this aircraft was significantly
heavier than originally intended, the empty weight ballooning from the design
1,600 to the prototype's 2,250 lb (1,020 kg). In order to keep the weight and
balance within limits, fuel capacity had to be cut dramatically to 263 gallons,
reducing range from the original 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to 1,500, although it
was never to demonstrate anything beyond about 500 miles (800 km). Speed was
equally poor; even at full thrust the plane was barely able to reach the
transonic, at Mach 0.83.
Eventually 63 $10,000 deposits (45 in the United States) were placed for the
kits. By 1994 three additional airframes were under construction, one by Mike
Van Wagenen of Nevada, another by Jim Priebe in Ohio, and the last by Frank
Everett in California. However, during this period Chief Test Pilot Skip Holm
left the project. Work on the BD-10J project by Bede seems to have stopped at
about this point.
Fox's first prototype, N9WZ, was completed in 1994 and entered testing. Although
it had been modified to incorporate the stronger tail of Bede's design, it broke
up mid-air on 30 December 1994 when the vertical stabilizers failed due to a
crossflow condition, killing Van Wagenen. The National Transportation Safety
Board (NTSB) later concluded that Bede's fix was severely under-designed, and
offered nowhere near the strength that had been calculated. Fox had not
performed any testing to verify the redesign of the vertical stabilizer spars
before continuing flight testing, instead relying upon the data provided by
Bede.
In 1996 Bede sold the military rights to Monitor Jet of Canada, which intended
to equip it with the Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D engine and sell it as a basic
trainer as the MJ-7. Monitor also purchased the single so-far completed kit,
N700JP, its pilot apparently not interested in flying it. There appears to have
been some interest on the part of the Portuguese Air Force as a replacement for
its fleet of Alpha Jets in the training role, but nothing ever came of this. The
aircraft was even mentioned briefly during the Canadian Parliamentary Debates.
When a group of investors in Bede's company threatened to foreclose, Bede
declared bankruptcy in 1997. The investors formed Vortex Aircraft in San Diego
intended to produce completed versions as the PhoenixJet for the military
market, terminating Monitor's agreement due to a claimed failed payment. Oddly,
Monitor purchased the original prototype, N2BD, at the same auction, although
for reasons that are unclear it appears it was never moved. Neither company
managed to find any interest in the design, and both companies disappeared, the
lawsuit being dropped in 1998.
This left only the second kit-built aircraft, N7FF, still flying. It broke up in
midair off the southern coast of California in 2003 after pilot Frank Everett
had radioed a MAYDAY call in which he stated that the aircraft was
"disintegrating". Everett did not survive.
Specifications (BD-10J)
General characteristics
Crew: one pilot
Capacity: 1 passenger
Length: 28 ft 10 in (8.794 m)
Wingspan: 21 ft 6 in (6.55 m)
Height: 8 ft 1 in (2.46 m)
Wing area: 98 ft2 (9.1 m2)
Empty weight: 1,600 lb (725 kg)
Gross weight: 4,430 lb (2014 kg)
Performance
Maximum speed: Mach 1.4
Cruise speed: 593 mph (957 km/h)
Range: 1,550 miles (2,499 km)
Service ceiling: 45,000 ft (13,715 m)
Rate of climb: 30,000 ft/min (152 m/s)
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