When i was a kid, I was intoxicated by the thought of owning and flying a BD-5J.

Now that I could actually buy and fly one, meh, not much interest. A brief history of the design and controversy in this video. a fun watch with lots of video of the BD-5.

I still remember my first trip to OSH and seeing these little planes. 1984, I was 9 years old and thought it was the neatest thing. Coors Light sponsored one in those days, and I watched my dad talk to the pilot about it and learned that they installed a different wing design.

There were a few homebuilt BD-5s on the flight line in those days.

The local aviation museum had a BD-5 kit donated to them with the caveat that they promised never to make it fly. I saw the crates probably 25 years ago, and AFAIK nothing ever happened with them.

Had a J hanging from the ceiling in the FBO when we were at CMH. I saw the owner of the company fly it once before it was hung up there. All I remember thinking is, man, that thing sure uses a lot of runway for take-off.

The Sonex jet is a much better implementation of this concept: turning money and fuel into fun and noise by way of a small jet engine.

(edit: not to denigrate the design and engineering abilities of Jim Bede; the Sonex simply has a better engine and the benefit of a few decades of lessons learned on the small personal sport jet concept.)

Richard Bach (author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull and several other fabulous books) owned a BD5-J for a while and wrote that it was the most dangerous aircraft ever built, especially on takeoff.

Flashback triggered! The BD-5 on the ceiling and the Ansel Adams (I think?) photography prints on all the walls… so Jerry actually flew that thing?

He flew it. The company was still based at PTK. I work at Central Skyport on the south side of the field and Jerry rented office shape there for the company’s CMH operations.

Every time Octopussy is on TV I start down the rabbit hole of thinking I should have a BD-5J

I suspect you're in good company on this one.

These guys did an incredible airshow routine.

Personal rocket ship? That was the Lancair 235. 200 MPH on 5.5 GPH at altitude.

Back in the mid 1970’s, I worked for a company that was modifying BAC1-11’s (equivalent in size to a DC-9-10) from airline to VIP config. We did the NBAA airshow circuit to market the airplane when the Reading Airshow was one of the premier stops. We were parked next to the BD-5J demo team on the ramp. I got to meet Corky Fornof, Debbie Gary and Bobby Bishop and wound up sitting in one of the BD-5J’s to try it on. I wanted one so bad but they were unobtainable at the time. I had been following the BD-5 since it first appeared on the scene and was a total fan.

On the last day of the show, all of our sales/marketing folks had bugged out by mid afternoon so those of us left decided to throw a party on the plane to watch the final airshow. We pulled the Emerg Exit doors out so people could get out on the wing to watch and place their cocktail order at the exit. It turned in to a wild and crazy party with even the T Bird pilots and maint troops attending after their final flight. We wound up hiring one of the lead T-38 crew chiefs that was scheduled to get out soon. Also met some of the Goodyear Blimp folks and got a ride the next day in the Blimp. Those were the days with wild times. Work hard, play hard!

Years later (late 1990’s) I ran in to Corky at Clay Lacy’s in Van Nuys. He still had his BD-5J in a trailer there. He didn’t remember me until I mentioned the party on the wing. It was a story worth telling back then.

In the early 2000's, there was a company operating at least one BD-5 as a contract cruise missile replicator for the DoD; I thought it was the perfect platform for that role as it was accurate in both size and speed. I met one of the pilots that was operating out of one of the NW FL airfields supporting exercises on the Eglin ranges.

When I lived in Wichita, I went to a Bede open house at the Newton, Ks airport. and saw both the prop and jet BD-5's fly.

They also had some sort of training contraption mounted on a boom from the front of a large pickup. They were offering rides in it, but the line was too long.

I also asked Jim Bede about the use of the small Williams turbofan as used in cruise missiles. He said it was too expensive.

For a short while I worked at the same company as Corky Fornoff, the stunt pilot for that movie (and countless others). He said he flew through the hanger 5 times to get the shot. I can't remember the speed but it was something like 145kts, and it was based on the shutter speed of the camera.

The scene where the jet flames out and Bond taxis up to the gas station was inspired by a real event. He was heading to DC I think and the engine flamed out somewhere over West Virginia. Apparently that engine was a POS and was the achilles heel of the airplane. Anyway, the only place to land in the mountains was the highway so he set it down and had enough energy to coast up the off ramp and into a local filling station. Sitting on a chair outside was an old timer who didn't even bat an eye when Corky rolled up, acting like this happened every day.

Other than the engine he spoke highly of the jet. I suspect with a modern engine like the PBS, along with some real training (likely lacking in the 80's) it would probably be a good plane.