evans@mhuxt.UUCP (crandall) (08/24/85)
Subject: BD5J Newsgroups: net.aviation Distribution: net I have just had the opportunity to speak to a BD5J driver and see one of the "toys" fly. The J originated sometime in the early 70s as Jim Bede was flitting around with various configs of the BD5 platform. It is a bit over 12' long with a 17' wingspan. Empty weight is 500 pounds with full gross being double that figure. VNE is 288 mph, high cruise is 250, final approach is 105, and the stall is 82mph with flaps down. The engine is a TRS-18 microjet by Ames Industrial (under a French license) that weighs 80 pounds and pumps out about 200 pounds of thrust. The particular machine I saw cost about $35k to build in 1975 and the fellow wouldn't part with it for less than $100k now. The little plane is very impressive in flight - 250mph looks faster than a 500+mph F16 due to the tiny size of the plane. Aerobatics are the norm for small jets (like the Super Pinto) except this one is great inverted and can even tail silde! The pilot said that the control harmony is excellent. He also said that the plane is completely unforgiving. The worst fault is the poor takeoff performance. You're supposed to hold the thing on the ground until you're well above 85mph - something that can easily burn up 7 or 8 thousand feet on a hot Summer day. The wing on all of the Js is the intermediate wing that Bede came up with, not the high lift wing that was supposed to go on the production :-) 5s. There are now small turbofans (!) in the size/weight range of the TRS-18 that offer more than double the thrust. One of those, combined with a new wing, would make the airplane a very versitilemachine. The fellow then told some interesting J stories... The sequence from the James Bond movie where the J coasts up to the gas pump really happened.. Corkey Fornoff lost oil pressure in his J over North Carolina and used the thing like a glider (15:1 LD at 125mph) to land on an interstate. He passed a pickup, turned at tan offramp and coasted up to the pumps at a Sinclair station. Unfortunately they didn't have turbine A! The other story involved the military - Bede quoted a flyaway price of about $50k for Js to be used as trainers. A few machines were being tested until someone stalled on final and wiped a machine out. The AF determined that the Js were too difficult to fly to be of any use. I want one... Steve Crandall ihnp4!mhuxt!evans