I have a pic of the old "Coors Light Silver Bullet" BD5. Once I get my new PC hooked up and online, I'll have to scan a pic and post it.

Put a wind screen on the hull, little short wing stubs, and a dead ultralight prop on a faked up prop shaft, then put it in the yard for kids to play in.  Paint with gloss latex applied with a foam roller, don't waste good paint on that POS.


Here's a pretty good Jim Bede story.

In the early 80's a rigid wing ultralight named the NAC Dream showed up at Oshkosh.  This little airplane was virtually the first conventionally configured Part 103 vehicle that looked like a real airplane, not a lawn chair.  The thing was a hit.

Then word spread around that Bede was associated with the project.  Two things happened, the airplane was an instant commercial failure, and lots of people that were still pissed off about losing their deposits for BD-5's were hunting for Bede with intent to give him a thumping.  Thousands of people lost deposits for kits and production versions, roughly 12000.

Jim Bede is a hell of a speaker, dreamer, and not a bad airplane configurator.  But the trail of shoddy business following him is long, and virtually unbroken.  While he was in the St. Louis region working on the BD-10 and a couple of other projects I went to his shop a few times and was stunned about some details I saw on the jet.  The tail problems were predicted, that was a no brainer.  The wing skin assembly was a real surprise; aluminum honeycomb sandwich tooling board, while not necessary a problem in itself, the connection at the edges of the skins is unacceptable.  Only the outermoldline skin was fastened, the inner skin was terminated without attachment.  This defeats the advantage of honeycomb construction and long term fatigue life is severly compromised whether or not the static strength is sufficient.

One of the guys I worked with crashed either the -14 or -12, I don't recall, but he didn't get hurt.

Don't use anything but alodine or a light shot of primer.  Anything else shims the parts apart and adds weight.

Always think light, especially on tiny airplanes.

Some builders are using a clear anti corrosion application, I don't know the name of as it was not in use while I was active.  I've seen a CH601 with this stuff slathered inside and can say that it added a significant amount of weight.

Old time zinc chromate is pretty much obsolete these days and modern polyester primers are pretty much standard now.  You can even buy it colored the same as zinc chromate!

We use a polysulfide sealant for fay surface sealing here.  The crap is gray and ruins any clothes.  I've also used it for and adhesive that either didn't need to perform at temps over about 150F and in joints where I wanted strain isolation.

Great stuff, but messy if you try to use it without a Semco gun.  And you'll play hell getting bonded stuff apart at room temperature as the peel strength is about 50 pounds per inch!