Paul Dye's Incredible SubSonex Jet 

Paul Dye is NASA’s longest-serving Flight Director and was involved in 39 missions before retiring from NASA in 2013. As NASA's Manned flight director, he planned, directed and controlled the activities of the space shuttle team. His missions included both the first trip to the fully assembled Mir space station in 1996 (STS-79) and the last docking of a space shuttle at Mir in 1998 (STS-91)

I like how he’s not trying to hide the fact it’s a completely “useless” plane with no useful load and short durance, but is still a totally awesome plane and I wish I had one.

Very nice to see the Kitplanes magazine people out doing it for real not just writing about it! Way to go Paul!

That power plant is so compact for what it does. Sure would be nice to see a twin-engined version using the same engines, but with a larger fuel tank and maybe room for a passenger.

Some people are truly blessed to be able to do what they do.

John Stahr has spent a lot of his career painting million dollar Prevost motorhomes, so, he's well qualified to paint this little jet.

Well the paint job is absolutely fantastic, I noticed that early on with the lettering.

Sadly we lost one of those airplanes and its pilot today in Shreveport Louisiana. RIP Freddie.

"skipping breakfast today. It will cut my range down by 3 miles."

Wow I was excited when he mentioned someone from my town Eugene Oregon as an aspiring pilot!

Reminds me of the jet conversion of good ole' BD-5

I love the way he got out of the golfcart at the start like he just showed up and they were waiting filming until he did

It is nice to see people enjoying life!

Great and informative video. I'm not a pilot but seeing this makes me want to become one.

I like the owner/pilot's honesty, that is unless he wants to be unique.

I didn't know we build these small jet engines in our country. Nice.

Beautiful plane though it brings "Manned V-1 "Buzz Bomb" to my mind. Excellent video as usual!

Unbelievable. So fun dreaming about it. Thanks for the buzz

That's a beautiful little plane.

Was happy to see it has a ballistic chute. Fun little toy you have there.

Love that minimalism control panel.

Sweet, little plane! Thanks for sharing this.

Beautiful aircraft my friend! From one NASA to another, clean winds and blessings!

I would love to see that aircraft redesigned as a twin engine delta wing, tandem seat aircraft.

Guys this is a recreational air craft. Its not a cruiser. Its tiny. Single seat with a recovery chute. Its cruising speed at altitude is a tick under 300 mph. He said the range was about 1.5hrs. Thats actually not bad considering how efficiency scales in jet engines. Think of it this way. You could assuming perfect conditions, start in cali, make three hops, and be nearly half way across the country. Thats 6 hrs of time with fueling. If you got up at 530 and had breakfast you could be in the air at 6. You could have lunch in colorado at about 1230. You could uber to a dispensary and have a nice relaxing smoke, get a motel room, scare up some poon in tinder, have a toss, take a nap, wake up refreshed at about 530, uber back to the airport, taxi, take off and be home by midnight. Or if flying this sort of thing at night isnt your thing, hop twice land in arizona and bed down for the night and get some dinner door dashed to your room and wake up about 6, watch some cartoons, hit tinder up again and have another toss, take off about 9 and be back home again about 1130 or so for lunch. Or you can just fly lazy circles around your property for about an hour at a time in your goddam jet using you huge fuckin money boner because you can afford a fuckin personal recreational jet. Some things arent about maximal utility. Sometimes its just fun and being able to do something others cant.

Just coming around to "Oh yeah, I was a NASA flight director" in there like ain't no thang.

Right,in 3 months in his factory , try doing the same in my garage,probably 13 Months fulltime most days

4:45 - "...as you add power, the nose pitches down..." Exactly the opposite problem to the 737MAX, then....

"We put a pistol grip on the throttle" Ah, so now it's an military-style assault throttle then...

Great little plane there!

I'm not a pilot but I do like to look at planes. Just stumbled across this one in my feed. What's up with all of the super negative comments? Is it a kit plane community thing? Envy? What gives?

known Paul since the 80's. He retired Flight Controller of the Shuttle. Yes he had a job like Gene Kranz, so he knows his airplanes.

What a beautiful aircraft

Funny how the guy at 0:19 wasn't paying attention at all and about walked straight into him. 😆

Pretty cool and interesting plane. I was trying to figure out why you would lower your landing gear at such a high altitude, then I realized it was to create drag to reduce your air speed. Lol. I'm wondering if you could possibly increase your flight time and range by switching to propane or LP gas like a BBQ Grill? Just a little food for thought, it seems like I read somewhere how some of the jet powered glider builders and pilots did that awhile back.

I think I'd have to do some P80/F80 shooting-star style external tanks on the wingtips with this thing....

Good to hear the painter is from Eugene, Oregon. Love this town.

Very vigurating, how portable in size a jet craft can be now a days, like a bubble with little rear engines and wings, almost like 'Goerge Jetson' classic cartoon craft, if you also add a long gyro tention rod at thd front tip path, you can also make them vertically land and take off hoover.

Cool airplane. And Paul seems like a decent guy.

It needs wing tanks to extend the range, but then you exceed the maximum operating weight. So then you need a more powerful engine. :)

I 90% built a Moni back in the day.... Decided to go and fly 172's to get my license and then decided to move on. Had that KFM that was doomed from the beginning....lol

It be fun to build a midair refueling system for this. Just got to select a tanker. make a hell of a video.

Very cool plane! Loved the video!

No demonstrations? What a tease!

What is top speed on this a/c - the ceiling of her? Do you require O2 flying her? When you punch the chute how long till you touch down from say 4,000 feet? And yes your question I an nosy. . . . very nosy. Thank you if you answer and well - - -

The paint at a bit of distance makes the shape look much better than it is. It's a clumsy angled body shape in reality. They really should make a smooth one in composites instead.

and the speed... you forgot the speed !

dude, having a cosk stockpit is awesome!

Totally impractical. Great for local experience but …(what’s the performance specs?)

That's all very cool, but you should also show the plane actually flying !

3:38 Safety folks...safety.

The guy in the blue shirt doesn't seem too impressed I think it's a beautiful plane

Didn't mention speed? Aerobatic capabilities?

I thought it is a "Y" tail (V Tail with very small rudder) - very little drag, but improved handling over typical "V" tail.

I plan to use mine just as he used his, main difference being mine will not go more than 300 miles point to point. Less than 500 miles round trip in fact. This jet may be "useless" for some, but for me, this jet has plenty of use. I can finally feel like superman and fly which is a childhood dream come true. And I can make people of all ages smile at air shows because I plan to paint mine up like a transformers character, specifically Thundercracker.

In the name of experimentation. I would love to see this jet put on a longer wing span . Just because.

It looks like a lot of fun

Imagine one of these with dual engine and the engine placement and empennage of the A-10 Warthog!

Yes, it is not IFR. Unless you take off and fly a few minutes, stay in the pattern so you can have your reserves, go on IFR and land back where you started. Neat aircraft. Wonderful.

Powerful lilli powerplat, i'm amazed

Impressive little craft.

I wonder if there could be a A-10 replica kit with 2 engines for these lil planes?

Two things to know: price and speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed

The audio suddenly becomes synchronised at 4.33 ... before that it was a second out. Oh nice plane btw

With absolute respect but Mark, you have this amazing ability to make your mouth move differently to what you say. 😅

Made with ♥️ By Elves !

I think it needs a pair of tip tanks. Also, a more efficient engine perhaps.

An Advanced BD airline of Wichita, Kansas which was sold to a Beer Company as Silver Bullet. Great Tiny Jet Flyer.

Quick question, why couldn’t he have spent a few weeks on revision of the wings to allow a better tips on the ends to reduce stalls and reduce drag rates ?

dude with the shirt "Watch your altitude" was like "what the.. "

Next model, have the engine inside the fuselage. Beautiful aircraft though!

Love the M16 grip. Nice touch.

I see this engine is a very small, no bypass engine, which is amazingly neat. Are there any manufacturers out there that are making "small" high bypass engines with better fuel efficiency? I'm relying on the expertise and knowledge base of the those in the know. I hope there is such a small engine.

So not enough room for a personal chute, but enough room for the ballistic chute?

1:28 the artwork on the registration font is fantastic ! can you add external fuel pods ?

I suspect the ride is like a 4.5 ton 4x4 he said you wear it like a glove, you feel every wind gust, or heat wave.

I'd like to see that engine in an model aircraft maybe even two in a warthog, it would break the sound barrier.

Some lady left her vacuum cleaner on the back of that plane!

I missed the part where he mentioned what the top speed/cruising speed is..

Dear AVweb: PLEASE put the links to various resources shown in the videos, such as the KIT COMPANY. Thank you.

Nice AR throttle handle

I want a heavily-latticed cockpit like the one shown in the opening frames of this video.

My Christmas wish

Gorgeous little beastie. But how much does it cost?

I’d love to see it fly! 😍 maybe even 15/20 more gallons of fuel!

Alexander Lippisch had the same problem with his Me-163 Komet... So he added a simple wind-driven generator to the front of his craft for all the free electric power he needed. McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantom IIs and other aircraft have emergency pop-out generators too. While it'd be no perpetual motion device, modern EVs could increase their range and charge-ability if equipped as well.

Would be nice to see it fly.

That s a nice little jet

Me: Mom, can we get Cirrus Jet? Mom: We have Cirrus Jet at home. Cirrus Jet at home:

That is a beautiful plane

I like this guy.

Puts me in mind of the v1 piloted version

Waiting for Kingtech to come out with a motor like that.

I want this engine in a Cozy MKIV

Glad you never stated the price and speed and detailed the paint job.

Oooo,the 2020 BD5J!

For the record. I had no idea you were in Oshkosh when you started the video. :-)

I'm 6'2" he said I could fit I really want it now.

Like a small and modern fouga magister

What an amazing engine! The usable load seems very low.