The Mighty BD-5 - A Kitplane Legend 

Excellent video 👌 My grandfather worked with him on the BD-1 in Cleveland. When cleaning my grandfather's house after his passing I recovered a painting from the trash to keep. After having it restored it was later confirmed to be the BD-1. I was fortunate enough to meet Jim Bede at his shop a few years before his passing. Truly an amazing person and quite the sense of humor. Showing him the painting and sharing stories Jim noted most of his artwork was lost in a flooding incident and was surprised to see this painting. I still have the artwork proudly displayed in my house.

What's with the deafening music

I remember this aircraft as a kid growing up in the Midwest USA in the 70s. Saw several at air shows, especially the BD-5J, and like many dreamers always hoped to fly one some day. I’m sure it was part of the inspiration I had in getting my pilot’s license at 18 years old. Later in life, I hosted the BD-10 Jet in the hangar of my FBO at PWK when it visited overnight once. That re-kindled a lot of emotions for aviation dreams many of us had and still have. One thing I didn’t see in this video is mention that the BD-5 kit was actually offered as a prize on a TV game show. I can’t remember if it was Price is Right or another popular show, but, thinking back on it, I am amazed that Jim Bede got it promoted in such a way. Anybody else remember seeing it?

In 1973 I helped my uncle build a BD 5 in his garage. It took the 2 of us about 6 weeks to build. My Uncle then scraped out a dirt runway on his property. On his very first flight, my Uncle flew it the 75 miles over the border into Mexico from Arizona. Had a beer and flew back. He loved that plane. It was still flying ten years later. Sadly, it was wrecked on a freeway during transport

Years ago I met a guy who had flown a BD-5J micro jet. He said it was a fun plane to fly but you HAD to fly it! It was not a forgiving plane.

I have so many memories of the time when I was learning to fly and reading about the BD-5. I paid my 5 bucks and got the news letter and saw all the reports of a new engine and longer wing versions and runway simulator flying which today I can see as screaming failures in design. My CFI told me to walk away so I did and thankfully so. As we all know there is so much more to the story but he sure did create a lot of hope and excitement in the GA world at that time. 1970 to maybe 73. The sad part is he could have also been successful if he had only been more professional and responsible about what he was trying to do. He had enough very good aeronautical engineers to make an actual great flying aircraft. But you have to put yourself in that time period. If he had the internet’s advertising power he’d have probably made it.

I am 58 years young and remember his designs well. I remember seeing a BD-5 for the first time and the engine issues it had. Mr. Bede was way ahead of his time and when time caught up with his prop version in a reliable power plant...the venerable little aircraft had slipped into memory except for the jet version. I saw one in person in the form of the Silver Bullet performance team. I will NEVER forget the in cockpit narration of the flighr. I forget the pilots name but he was very good and had a sense of humor that not only left the crowd amazed but also laughing. Mr. Bede was and will continue to be an American hero of aviation engineering. Doran Jaffas Central Lower Michigan

I have dreamed of owning a BD-5J since I was 16, Still waiting and keeping fingers crossed, As they say on Galaxy Quest, Never give up, Never Surrender!

Thanks for this nostalgic trip back in time .... I had the opportunity to help build a BD5 with a wonderful person I'll never forget - who later had his own BD5J - but lost his life test piloting a BD5 for a friend in Kansas.

Nicely done... however the Coors Light Silver Bullet Jets performed for millions of airshow fans. Would be great to see them in this video! I was their Program Manager at Coors... Cheers! -Kirby

We built a BD-5 kit plane in our high school aerospace class back in 1980-82. Absolutely awesome aircraft!

I flew one years ago for some mechanics that built it and were afraid to fly it. It was wonderful and it had the turbo-Honda engine in it. 1300cc I believe.

Thank you for honoring a pioneer like Jim Bede, we miss him terribly as an owner of 1975 BD 4 and owner of not competed BD 4C. In my eyes my BD 4 birds are always sexy. Like they say the beauty is in the eyes of the beholders.

Wow, there’s a lot of angry, negative recent comments on this. That sucks, because this is an awesome video! NICE WORK! Can’t y’all forgive a guy with 250 subs for making a slight mixing error 7 months ago?! Great stuff Lochie!

My brother and I were at Oshkosh the year it made its debut and it was exciting. The engine problem was a real disappointment until the 5J came out. I still love that plane!

i remember seeing an advert for this as a kid. how exciting!

Boy, does that bring back memories. I was a teenager frothing at the mouth to build a BD5 with my friend. We had no knowledge of flying, no experience building anything more complex than a skateboard and no money. But we were inspired to work hard, take flying lessons and aspire to this goal. We never made it but the little BD5 was sure an inspiration for several years. Thanks, I loved your video.

Thank you Lochie, well done history of the legendary BD5.

Wing is tapered, yet spar is constant diameter aluminum tube, which makes tip airfoils thicker than root and hence the tendency to tip stall.

There was a BD-5J at our local airshow many years ago. I remember the whirrr and snap snap snap when they lit the engine and watched it taxi out and takeoff. The pilot put on a very nice flying demonstration. It was one of those planes that everybody watched. DELIGHTFUL!

Great vid. I remember the ads in Air Progress in the sixties at home in Australia and have been hooked ever since. Thanks for the history.

I saw the BD jet team fly at the Reading Pennsylvania air show sometime in the early 70s, my wife and I had flown our Aeronca Sedan from MA. If I'm remembering correctly the pilots were Gene Soucy. Charlie Hillard and another whose name escapes me. However all three were national aerobatic champions. The Blue Angles cancelled because of weather but the BD team went up. At one low pass they pulled up into a vertical loop and directly into a huge black could, I could hear the crowd gasp but they appeared out of that cloud in precise diamond formation and the spectators went wild with cheering and applause. A great memory.

I purchased a complete BD-5 kit 17' wings in 1978 with no engine. Ended up selling it because of the engine issue. The quality of the whole kit was outstanding. The blue prints were excellent. It was an amazing design. KB

My old friend Corkey Fornof and his partner Bobby Bishop flew as a precision airshow team as "The Microjets" sponsored by COORS beer as I recall. And it was Corkey who flew the little jet through the hangar in "Octopussy". They probably were the greatest visibility and public recognition of the BD-5 EVER since they did so many airshows together.

the audio needs some work, sure, but the video is really nice, the music fits and I loved it. Great video.

Gave me chill bumps 👏👏👏thx for this great video!

I read the magazines and as a kid wanted one of these BAD! oh yea some X-ray glasses too. But really wanted wanted the jet powered BD-5

Kiekhaefer marine is Mercury outboards' manufacturer , an American company that still makes outboard Motors. At the time these were super reliable and powerful water cooled 2 strokes.

I "ditto" Mike Dolan's comment. When Popular Mechanics ran its Kitplane articles in the early 70's, I was hooked. While I still dream of building a kit plane in my little garage, I know it probably won't become a reality. That said, I credit Jim bede for inspiring me to get my pilots license at 17 years of age. The Bede 5 will forever hold a place in EAA lore. If anyone wants to see a Bede 5 up close, go to the EAA Museum in Oshkosh WI. Cheers.

They have a functional one at the Evergreen Museum in Oregon, its so small, I didn't believe it was a real plane but a prop or something (so ignorant), my 7yr old daughter fits in there real nice! The plane mounted on front of the truck for training is amazing!

I once saw one in 1984 powered by a BMW R100 motorcycle engine.

We in Iran 🇮🇷 love BD’s story and contributions he made. We followed his teachings about engaging and persistence.

Great video. Thank you for posting. Amazing piece of machinery

In the mid-70’s, someone converted a Honda Civic engine and put it in their BD-5. It worked well enough to impress Honda USA’s marketing folks, who put the diminutive dart and her dad in one of their TV commercials.

I almost heard what he was saying over the music

When I was a kid in the 80s I remember seeing the "Coors Light Silver Bullet", which was a brightly polished BD-5J. Very cool to see fly.

Very nicely done. I expected you to have more subs! I’m ready for the next vid.

Fun to watch the history here. As a little kid, this *WAS* the planes dreams were made of! Thank you.

Awesome, spot-on video. Thanks for making it!

Ever since seeing the magazine adds for the BD-5 I’ve wanted one, even more so the 5J when it came out. Would have loved to have built one, but the Canadian Ministry of Transportation deemed them “too small and too fast” to get an airworthiness certificate in Canada. You’d occasionally see one at an air show for a while but they had to be trucked across the border and only flown at the air show. Thanks for the video.

The passion you have is contagious...so awesome i so love this and cant wait till im building my own in the garage. Which will happen after i get garage ...oh and maybe a house but just a garage would be ok by me. Excellent job again and thanks fo sharing! All the best Michael Cunha

Way cool video, I just wish it was longer! Just when it got exciting, you finished up the story. Wah! Dude... AUDIO BALANCE!!!!

When I got my pilots licence in the 1990s I wanted a BD-5 so badly.

That's a nice video. You should do a 2nd one, like an update on what's actually flying nowdays. with more low pass, more bd5 and formation flying

Now paramotors and microlights (as far as cheap diy flying goes) seem to be all the rage lol! Would be awesome to see one of these little badass BD's in person :) Nice little documentary BTW

This video was really well done! Thanks for posting. 👍

Thanks for not using a computer to narrate

Great video thanks for posting

There is a lot not mentioned here. Bede shipped these kits with significant parts missing, not just engines, but propellers and propeller drives as well, essentially everything associated with the powerplant installation. Even the drawings supplied with the kits were not complete. In Bede's defense, I will say that the kit documentation that was supplied was excellent, very detailed, and easy to follow. But Bede advertised these kits as easy to build with ordinary tools and skills and I can tell you, having built one myself, that this is a huge understatement. There is welding, machine shop work, sheet metal forming that required the builder to make wood patterns, and extensive trimming of the pre-shaped sheet metal fuselage panels that was impossible to do with any semblance of accuracy without alignment jigs. Bede claimed that those sheet metal parts were pre-trimmed and needed no further adjustment, but I will tell you that that was not the case, at least with the kits that I had (I ended up with two in all). Someone below claims to have built one in six weeks and there is no way that can be true. These kits can be purchased today from the original buyers in various stages of completion for a fraction of the original dollar price because the builders were so disillusioned that they gave up. The BD-5 in fact was a disillusionment for a whole generation of aircraft homebuilders. If you do buy one of these kits inspect it in person first, or look for one that is un-started or with little work done, because I have seen some cases of abominable work quality. Check also for corrosion after long storage because many have been stored in unheated garages or outbuildings. But I am talking here about the original kits supplied by Bede Aircraft. Today there are third-party services that can help, at a cost, with the missing parts and can even supply complete kits, and they can help with the fabrication challenges including jig alignment of wings and fuselage. Engines are available as well, so anyone who is determined should be able to complete one of these. I don't think building a BD-5 is more difficult than other scratch-built airplane projects, but it is not easier despite the claims. But once complete it is a great flying airplane with good performance.

Sorry a bit off topic. A friend's dad asked me to build a Vans RV-10. Being a commercial aircraft mechanic, I built it as well as I would work on a B737. What an amazing kit! Some work had already been done in the Philippines and I could not find one bad hole/rivet. It had a 300hp Lycoming and stick controls. Everyone wanted to fly it because they had so much fun throwing it around.

Thanks for sharing it, I love this AIRPLANE

Awesome video brought a tear to my eye

I wanted one of these as a kid and I STILL want one today!!!

The BD-4 actually was, and still is, a very successful design, They are very efficient, fast and capable machines. and still are being built today.

Excelente video, my man. You should consider making more aviation history videos just like this one.

I was there for the first BD5 open house in Newton Ks. As a young teen this was way beyond cool to me. Finally a plane my size and my mind was filled with wild dreams of aerial combat and strafing runs. Lol

Why do producers, like those of CBS television, have to add the music so loud that you cannot hear the speaker give his or her narrative? Frustrating!

Beautiful video,I'm sure this will inspire future generations to innovate in the world of Aviation.

I hate the music drowning out the narration.

Thanks for the informative video!

I worked at the airport near Cleveland (KCGF) where Jim Bede got his start, and where the then American AA1 was built. Still remember looking at the glider in the Curtis Wright hangar. Great story!

Nice job! I lived this! My dad had a fbo and we had one being made in the shop......

New subscriber! What a amazing story the history of ppl never giving up!!

Absolutely wonderful!

great video!

Saw a jet version fly once , guessing it was the 70s off the beach in Fairfield CT,, cool as all get out !

Might want to add something about the flying team - Corky Fornoff and Bob Bishop if I remember correctly. Best airshow performers I ever remember seeing. BD5J team.

You can still buy new BD-5 kits FYI. Also the nastier flight characteristics of the aircraft were later corrected by aftermarket modifications that became available.

When it was announced, the BD-5 was "the stuff dreams are made of"... for a lot of people it went on to show how little difference there is between a dream and a nightmare. We still yearn after those dreams though, don't we!? :o)

Neat vid. I had a friend who built and flew a BD-5. I always thought it was one of the coolest aircraft I had ever seen. Unfortunately, my friend would later die in his BD-5 while trying to landing during an emergency. I learned to fly in a American AA-1A. This was another really fun airplane. I flew this aircraft for many years starting at the age of 12 with my father. When I was younger, I did not realize the AA-1 was derived from Bede’s BD-1.

Saw one for the first time in 1976. Still in love them!

I placed an order for a BD5 after seeing a ad in Popular Science magazine in 1971or72. I believe the advertised price was $4400 and down payment was $400. My production number was 412. I held the order paper for two years and sold it to an acquaintance of mine and got back my deposit. My acquaintance lost his money a couple of years later when the company went belly up. I did fly the trainer attached to a pickup truck, scary situation. 39 years later I finally built my first plane...RV12 in 2011.

My son loved the airplane as a kid and now flies airshows across the USA in the FLS microjet

Great video

Thank you for the video Louchie. Very well done. Maybe you could make a second video of the many different engines (2 stroke, 4 stroke and turbine based) that have been installed in the BD-5.

Would love one of those planes! Awesome

Nicely done, thanks. :)

There was also a BD10 jet, only 5 ever built. It was to be the first kit that would break the sound barrier. The only one left is somewhere in Toronto ON.

I got in on the build of a BD-5 during my apprenticeship in the 1970's. We built the fuselage and wings using solid rivets instead of the pop rivets in the kit. Today I still wonder what happened to it.

My dream airplane. Didn't get one until the mid eighties already started. Turns out the first owner drilled the rivet holes all wrong so the fuselage was crooked. Sold it for $1000 but kept the plans and all the letters to Bede. Later I met Jim Bede at Oshkosh around 1996. Love that plane.

Very good video. Thank you. Its really cool.

Great Video! Suprised that you don't have more views!

I saw the BD5J air show routine several years in a row in the 70’s when they had air races at Mojave.

just simply awesome

i saw a bd5 jet at the paine field air fair in the '70's... when they were done with the flight demo they took off the wings, stowed them alongside the fuselage in the back of a datsun pickup and drove off. with the tailgate up.

Great little piece of history! At 2:00 minutes in the music track drowned out the narration. This happened several times in the video.

VERY VERY COOL. My cousin Rick Brickert was killed in the Burt Ratan designed Pond Racer that needed some bad ass jet engines and the Jet class. Very cool story Lochie............. very cool.

I saw Corky Fornoff fly the Jet BD at the Pascagoula Mississippi old airport many years ago!

I saw the BD5 perform in the 70s and was mesmerized by the small size and high speed.

Cool Post! Thanks ! My dad and I were looking for home built plane project in 1970 and we looked at the Volksplane plans but when the BD 5 info kit showed up in the mail we were sold. While we were poring over the specs and pictures my mom came into the room with tears in her eyes and begged us not to build that plane because she KNEW that I would die in it. Well time passed I went to collage and later became a C.F.I. and dad and I never built a plane , just rebuilt and old Corvair together. I threw out the BD 5 info packet decades ago. I wonder what it would bring on E bay these days? You can get a BD 6 from and outfit down on Florida . To Infinity and Beyond !

I was in highschool when it came out, and oh how I wanted one!

Use to love watching the Coors sponsored BD5 J back in the late 70's early 80 in Provo Utah..and up in Ogden & Reno

Very interesting. Thanks

dude, background music gets so loud, I cant hear what you're saying.

I was 25 YO when the first ads and magazine articles came out. By that time I had already built two very fast speed boats. I had big dreams of building one but it just never happened.

Nice video!

Saw one of his BD-shaped cars in South Georgia and chased the couple down. They told me where they got it but I was so excited about seeing it I forgot.

Brought back lots of memories from when I was a kid and first saw BD5 on the cover of a magazine. I was obsessed with wanting one. It was a fun dream that never happened😎 Great information in your video but the music was way too loud and distracting. This would have been much better without the music or at least if it had been much quieter

At a Florida Airshow in the mid-1970s I remember seeing the Bede jet and watched it fly. I remember being amazed that a Volkswagon with wings could go so fast. LOL.

I love people like Bede, a man for the people.