BD-10 Homebuilt Supersonic Jet Aircraft (2 of 2)

[@outofcomms]

I was one of several Technicians involved with instrumenting the fuselage for stress and vibration during the 2 fatal crashes of the BD-10 at Minden. The first accident was caused by a .50 cent fastener that was left off of the left elevator control surface. The aircraft lost pitch control. The pilot attempted to get back to the strip at Minden, NV, but could not and crashed killing him instantly. The program started up again sometime later after an investigation.

[@outofcomms]

The second crash of the BD-10 was a Cat. failure of the two vertical fins. The pilot was Ret. Major Joe Henderson F-4 Phantom Vietnam. The two fins both turned inward during a high speed run, the aircraft violently pitched up and disintegrated. Even though Jim Bede was not held resposible, it was concluded that the vertical Fins were not load tested correctly by the designer. Major Henderson had hopes of getting together a demo team of 7 BD-10 jets.

[@jamers333]

I like what Drew had to say about design...I agree with him give me 2 days and we all could figure it out vertical stab issues. Bring back the BD-10!

[@ioaircraft]

the bd-10 was developed in the 90's. The viper wasn't even a thought at that time. Also, the bd-10 was to cost well under $1 million total ready to fly and the flight dynamics were much greater then the viper or javelin are currently.

[@mytemight]

Hey everyone! Excellent videos, I was one of the lucky employees who lost friends like Mike and Jim. And all my associates at Fox.I haven't stepped back into the aviation field since, if I were a rich man, I would keep the program operating! Best regards to Mrs V. and family. T.A.McGary

[@ioaircraft]

if you watch all three video's of the vd-10 i have, note the tail construction itself during assembly. it simply was just not built strong enough to take the severe forces exhibited during the transonic envelope. Ok for a cessna 150 ay 90 kts, but not past 300 kts. a rebuild of the tail, to streamline and severely strengthen, and the aircraft would have done well throughout all flight envelopes.

[@dragonlord1973]

From the Bedecorp website: "We are looking at a revised version of the BD-10 that would permit the use of the more modern, highly efficient fan engines. We also did a considerable amount of design work on the six place version of this aircraft. We have designated this aircraft the BD-11." Like it!

[@ioaircraft]

I was was on the depositor list for 2 kits when this was being flight tested. The video's came from my filing cabinet. Still mad this aircraft didn't make it.

[@appa609]

:(

[@appa609]

Do you have the manuals?

[@ranjen4]

Jim Preibe of Findlay Ohio built a BD-10 in the early 90's. I saw it fly once within a week of it's first flight, Jim had opened the envelope up to a little over 300 kts. at that time. He later painted it like a Blue Angel's F-18- Absolutely Beautiful! I heard the flight characteristics were excellent. He sold it after only two or three years. I read somewhere that it is now in a museum or other static storage. I Don't know if it was true or not, but local pilot talk was that the BD-10's that crashed (or all of them?) were improperly rigged due to build-jig issues that were then "corrected" by cranking in stabilizer trim against the mis-built/ mis-rigged wing(s), which at the higher speeds produced tremendous load on the airframe and eventually failed--if its true that is. I'm not qualified to critique Mr. Bede as an aeronautical engineer but what he achieved with the BD-10 impresses me, after all, how many high performance turbine powered aircraft were designed by one person and not a large team of engineers. I'd guess the list is very short. I wonder if the deficiencies of the BD-10 could be corrected, because other than the in-flight breakup's I've never heard of a pilot being disappointed with the handling and performance of the BD-10. Plenty of other aircraft had early serious issues that were fixed and went on to success.

[@troyvoorhees]

I was also out at Jim Priebe's grass strip and watched him fly his BD-10 soon after his first flight. He put one a great little performance! If I remember correctly, he sold his P-51 to fund the BD-10 build.

[@ioaircraft]

the aft of the aircraft is a great design for subsonic. But during the transonic envelope, it was shows clearly that there will be excessive shock for how it was built. By streamlining the aft, and beefing up the design quite a bit back there, it would have been able to take those severe shockwaves with ease. Especially with the vertical stabilizers.

[@irydka22]

I love that plane. It's very similar to polish EM-10 Bielik . I wish to fly one of those in the future. Greatings from Poland my friends.

[@brunodobia9223]

Yes if anybody knows plane’s it the Pole’s yes greeting’s too my Polish friend’s here from Alberta Canada 🇨🇦 do vijinna” eh Chesh”.

[@BluSTi]

Modern construction techniques, materials, and electronics would make this a winner today. Sure wish someone would take this project.

[@undrcoverlouky]

This plane has to be built. Put a ballistic parachute on it and finish testing it.

[@ioaircraft]

you read the official 1 paragraph statement on jim's website. actuality: fatal crash of the prototype killing the main test pilot, Ret. Major Joe Henderson F-4 Phantom Vietnam, which the aircraft literally disintegrated in flight; jim bede going broke on the project; a canadian company purchasing the entire bd-10 project to turn it into a target drone. there is only 1 aircraft in existance today.

[@Stylensky]

Wow, I was always impressed by the BD-5. But this plane here is just sexy! Too bad it was cancelled.

[@ioaircraft]

That was the bug. caused the failures. buffeting in the horizontal stabilizer, caused the disintegrations. I dont know why he used a conventional elevator, they dont work for anything in the transonic envelope or above. They figured that out 60 years ago with the X-1. That is why fighter jets have movable horizontal stabs. not a conventional elevator like a boeing or cessna.

[@ioaircraft]

it would have cost $750,000 rtf and if it were to have gone into kit production, they would have sold 3,000-5,000 kits over a 10 yr span. keep in mind the most common private aircraft general aviation outside of cessna are kit builds. and if a pilot doesn't know how to work on an aircraft, they have no business being a pilot. cheerio

[@ioaircraft]

it was built as a two seat. i think the ladder was just some dramatic effect to show how easy it is. Jim Bede is old school, stick and rudder. None of the super fancy severely high maintenance stuff.

[@ioaircraft]

don't know much about the kit built market, eh? Lookup the Lancair and say it's not a kit built. Best general aviation aircraft on earth with a cruise of 280+ mph.. not to mention usually built by old guys in their garages. cheers

[@TG626]

Even at subsonic speeds it would be amazing as a GA aircraft... when's the last time you saw a C172 doing 0.82M?

[@makinamati]

what do you think about the vertical stabilizer design issue?? in detail what was the issue?? why at mach 1?

[@ioaircraft]

you were in avionics tech. ok, this is my video. and i am a pilot, turbine 15,000+ hours and aeronautical engineer but anyways, this was to be a kit built, bede ran out of money, which is rather normal in the development of new products when you don't have multiple billions backing it up. too bad there were fatalities, but in aeronautics, that is normal too. it's not like he had a staff of 2,000 engineers working on the project, like lockheed does. f22 cost so much do to skunk works...

[@ioaircraft]

I just sold a Mig 21, 3 months ago... Vne is Mach 2.05. I'm a civilian in the U.S.... Cheers

[@crazyskyguy]

I need to find a way to be able to afford these planes...

[@ioaircraft]

I think the folks that created the Javelin got their inspiration from the BD-10. Because this is from about 13-15 years ago. But also, neither the Javelin or the Viper's performance specs are close to what the BD-10 was to do.

[@ioaircraft]

im a pilot and part owner of an fbo. i have salesmen, but it was my own plane. ty

[@videojockeysword]

James Bede was a genius, but not a great businessman. He is best known for having created "the world's smallest jet plane". But he designed all kinds of "advanced" stuff including cars. RIP.

[@circusboy90210]

when did he die?? I talked to him on the phone a few years ago

[@videojockeysword]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bede

[@ioaircraft]

any modern fighter could easily intercept anything at all, not just a plane like this. cheers

[@WhallonJesse]

Really incredible. I want to revisit this concept.

[@ioaircraft]

@gigobait 1 still flies. considering it never went into production because they ran out of funds, surpised the one in canada is still certified.

[@ioaircraft]

@piloty5 a very used L39 costs anywhere from $250,000-$500,000 range is less then 700 miles. so it's not any good for anything other then a quick 1-1.5 hr hop.

[@l0OoD1GBY]

I love it!!! Home built kit I it's a dream plane Speed of M 1.14 climbs rate 12000 per minute 1200 mile range Under a million $ I want one

[@ioaircraft]

and note. the fatal crash was the disintegration of the aft section of the aircraft during transonic flight testing. aka,the whole back end ripped apart.

[@outofcomms]

Correction! the first crash of the BD-10 was do to a Split Flap caused by a fastener that had sheared off. The aircraft went in to a roll and continued until he made contact with the ground.

[@OldFalcon2]

I walked behide it at Oshkosh one year. The horizontal stabilizer was so flimsey in bounced up and down as the aircrft taxied. It was very weak. I owned a Grumman AA5A for ten years and it was outstanding.

[@ioaircraft]

@putittogether there's one in canada. and no it is not the worst jet of all time. the material just weren't adequate to withstand the shock waves within the transonic enveloped (mach .99). the one that exists in canada is rated for subsonic, restricted to vne of mach .90 it is perfectly stable and a great design as long as exceeding vne doesn't occur.

[@ioaircraft]

@putittogether there's one still flying in canada. it's the same one on display on the wiki page: BD-10. It's also on youtube. The aircraft is completely stable and sound at sub-sonic. the problems arise when entering the transonic envelope, in which the composite materials (due to technology at the time) couldn't withstand the shock wave patterns induced on the vertical tail stabilizers.

[@appa609]

Is it the one in Hamilton? Are you sure it's flying? All the links I found seem to say they're only statics left

[@tsbrownie]

Zeps were OK, but I knew a guy that flew ASW in WWI & trained US Zep pilots. They all knew the # 1 reason for LTA: engines. LTAs carried mechanics along & when (not if) the engine quit, they were there to fix it. Early engines consumed almost as much oil as they did gas, so weight of fuel & oil was also an issue with fixed wing. LTA pilots knew that when (not if) engines got better, LTA was dead. Also, his ship required a minimum groundcrew of 45. His fixed wing colleagues, groundcrew = 1

[@ParadigmUnkn0wn]

I'd love to see this concept reimagined with modern composite construction so that it can hold together. CAD, FEA, and CFD take a lot of the initial experimentation out of the picture and provide some assurance that the design is sane before ever building a prototype.

[@adamrmc100]

Few structures can stand up to buffeting or flutter once it takes hold. Once it starts, it builds and gets worse. This is why high speed flight testing is dangerous. A "safe" way (if there is such a thing) to test the Vne, which isn't always practical, is to descend at a high speed, put the nose up and deflect the controls to test whether flutter begins at that particular speed; and if so, the aircraft is already slowing down and has the best chance to be recovered. The Viper Jet was built with all the modern techniques yet they avoided high speed testing almost entirely and only tested/set the Vne to just above the desired cruise speed.

[@ioaircraft]

this is a decade before the viper jet was thought about. it's basically, why they though about it in the first place.

[@bigncornfed]

Anyone who has followed Bede's story knows that before this plane was flown half the people who heard about it thought it was a scam. The fact that a guy with his 'checkered' past designed and built such a beautiful machine is vindication for Jim. To cancel it after one accident is tragic though. fix the flaw, fly the plane.

[@mgiorss]

This airplane was financed by DB Cooper... He called it BD not to get caught...

[@JoshuaAmaro]

I bet with today’s technology this would actually work...

[@ioaircraft]

100% agreed

[@KauaiSeeHorse4]

It has. BD 10 Bede Aircraft Corporation. copy and paste this for a MUCH improved BD-10

[@20alphabet]

As soon as I sell my '72 Pinto, I'm buyin' one of these!

[@rangerman375]

Supersonic aircraft can be owned all day everyday... getting authorization to create a sonic boom, however, is a whole different story. Every corporation and individual who owns a Citation X has a supersonic capable aircraft... it broke the sound barrier on accident during flight testing and the USAF just pops the breakers for the overspeed alarm......

[@unit666industries]

im afraid to ask its price

[@mlasko74]

That is totally amazing, thanks for posting. Perhaps ill build one

[@ioaircraft]

Cold hard cash is why. note, look at the elevators. the tail structure wasnt really capable of beyond M1 flight.

[@ioaircraft]

@MrCasuallyAwesome because the turbine that was to be used would operate at only 75% power for the bd-10. and the range, on that aircraft would have been 1200nm. just sucked that the airframe wasn't designed to withstand the transonic stress. would have been awesome to cruise from nyc to miami in an hour.

[@ioaircraft]

Look at the elevators. conventional elevators. fighter jet's horizontal stabilizer move the entire surface for a reason. conventional stabilizers, a pressure system builds up on the upper and lower, back and forth back and forth... shaking the structure apart.

[@FairladyS130]

That makes sense, a strange mistake to make.

[@tony_5156]

Such a shame that this aircraft was cancelled, it had such potential!!

[@ioaircraft]

@piloty5 i guess you are not a pilot. look up the reg's for external tanks. they are not allowed on private aircraft, as per 14 CFR Part 23. so no, your assumption is incorrect. the range can be extended to about 1,000nm with external tanks, if it were even legal to do so. 200k benz? 200k L39, probably in need of tto or a still has the original avionics package. i've owned 3 of them in the last 10 years.

[@tsbrownie]

Dude, not the point. They are too slow. They require huge ground crews (even with automation). They are subject to winds (head, tail and especially side). They don't lift all that much in comparison to the resources they consume. Good engines just mean there is really no reason to have them at all, other than nostalgia.

[@circusboy90210]

@survive81 what so much weight about a small amount of explosives(propellent) & a couple of rails???

[@20stevieray]

whats this called? how much? and how fast? and how far will it go b4 running outa gas

[@FairladyS130]

Flying is boring, except that something like this would be sensational. Performance and speed is everything.

[@ioaircraft]

except what you've mentioned each of them has, and many have been destroyed and killed their pilots during development. and every single fighter aircraft has had in flight disintegration and pilot deaths.

[@Membrane556]

Someone needs to finish the design work and mass produce these because it's frigging awesome.

[@ioaircraft]

@RedDevilSquadron who said over land. new york to miami is over the atlantic ocean.

[@ElSusurradorDeTermicas]

SuperSonic Aircraft homeBuild ? :OOOOOO ! Awesome

[@xres1329]

So does it have afterburner to fly supersonic? A landing brake-chute would not be hard to add...

[@hotspur666]

Talk about a suicidal-widow maker...Wiki: About the second kit-built aircraft, N7FF, still flying. It broke up in midair off the southern coast of California in 2003 after pilot Frank Everett had radioed a MAYDAY call in which he stated that the aircraft was "disintegrating". Everett did not survive. [12] All the finished ones crashed due to extremely poor design, killing the pilot too! Incredible that some goons are still pushing that crap!

[@TheJlbrecher]

The prototype and Priebie's never crashed. I repeat. All had unrelated problems. The first ( Peregrine was a build problem of wing incidence difference. The second (Peregrine)was due to a linkage on the leading edge device came loose and deployed on one side only. Frank Everest (Frank Fulkerson when I knew him) Was built after Bede Jet closed and had no factory help. I spoke with the FAA examiner who signed it off in St Louis and he thought it was a great build. Frank's original plane was lost in the 1993 St Louis floods during the build and he started a replacement just before Bede Jet went under. It was finished by ex McDonald Douglas employees in Chester, Il. Last time I saw Jim Priebe's plane it was still flying

[@TheJlbrecher]

***** The canopy was jetisonable.

[@soul__seeker__5352]

+hotspur666 and thats why u will never be an aviator

[@hotspur666]

+soul__seeker__ True enough, since I retired after flying for fifty years...

[@soul__seeker__5352]

well if it was'nt for the guys who pushed there designes and machines u would not have had anything to fly for those 50 years, for a pilot to make a comment that u did at the end of your comments seems somewhat ironic dont u think.

[@ioaircraft]

a pilots license, a crap load of flight hours of experience, and a jet rating.

[@craigjgray]

time to resurect the old plane need the plans and a few adjustments

[@JDKMM7]

How could you make this kind of stuff? Do you just attach sheet metal to the steel frame and weld everything together? And how about the fuel tanks and such....

[@ZicajosProductions]

Building a kit plane is long and complicated. There is a lot more to it than that.

[@circusboy90210]

@Diver0101 that was a cost breakdown of all the labor entailed in obtaining a $10 toilet seat, meaning all the people involved along the supply chain if you considered that this was the only thing done by each of those people all day long

[@rommelcolin8183]

Me pregu to, estos jets, son capaces de artillarse para una reaccion militar de defensa?

[@ioaircraft]

yes, it is hurting people... Jet A is $6.66 a gallon here.

[@jetaddicted]

3 out of 5 went down....i'm so sad to learn that,i was saving 1 euro a day in order to offer myself one of these beauts,say....in 200 years? i guess i'll just have to stick to my good ol' glider then

[@diyhost]

anyone who says to stay away from anything that is BEDE - is correct I assume Mr. Bede's intintions were always good - but his customers always suffered

[@TheJlbrecher]

+diyhost You might research your statements. You really don't have a clue! Many Bede planes are flying. I flew my BD-4 for years and now it still flys and it was finished in 1986!

[@craigjgray]

carbon fibre any one? i soooo want one

[@micheledc4113]

I want one... how much does it cost?????

[@THEclownxxx]

Because it really needed sophisticated fly-by-wire electronics to control the flight systems - which weren't available back in those days.

[@stany1720]

Well, I can understand that there was a crash with the plane going transonic. What I do NOT understand is why they canceled the program. Get a team of engineers to redesign the frame, and a simulation program for virtual testing...and that's it... I always wanted to fly jets. If I had a chance, I would do it myself :)) Don't give up, guys. Maybe I win the lottery one of these days and I'll be the first to buy one of those things :P

[@sanerix]

is it an origin of viper jet?

[@michaelwong4303]

Very hold and daring concept for a DIY aircraft ..

[@SsoulBlade]

Stupid question. Why not just fix the vertical stabilizer?

[@vitorstreetboys]

Fear

[@ioaircraft]

Subsonic yes (Mach .99). The problem was when it went into transonic, the shock waves caused a structural failure. Like if a learjet went transonic, it would rip it apart into small pieces. If an engineer, or type person changed the structural design that was able to handle transonic stresses, it would easily cruise at Mach 1.14 at 85% power with a single GE J85 (which is rather small for turbines).

[@OK2BCK]

...there was an accident and Jim Bede canceled the program. Was there a jet seat in it?

[@heathfiedler]

Still a nice little jet shame they canceled it.. just think of what one could do if it was made out of carbon fiber and some slight redesigns still id own one even if i couldnt go super sonic just means you have plenty of power to climb out if you got problems lol

[@piloty5]

@b101aa2 range is over 1500 miles if you get bigger tanks with the tip and/or bombshell tanks and i have found nice(and flying) ones for less than 200k which is the price of the benz'es i was referring to

[@MrBOB39]

is this even offered anymore.. or has this become the current less capable viperjet ?

[@TRAPBOULTERNAS]

how much does it cost?!

[@ioaircraft]

@piersremus pilot license, then all the hours and training to get up to being certificate for turbine aircraft. just having a private pilots license is a starter.

[@Blowfeld20k]

Who else is at 0:18 is concerned about the loose unsecured mounting steps the pilot casually stows behind his cockpit .... WTF?!?!? Please thumb if you agree. I'd pay good money to watch an in cockpit camera vid of him pulling some high g manoeuvres with them just dumped behind him like that.

[@papaburger]

does it have a radar ?

[@Pharmant41]

It needs a much bigger vertical stabilizer. Needs to be elongated. Necked down behind the pilot compartment to go super sonic. That super sonic shock wave is a beach. If you don't have the math right... forget about it. Otherwise maybe lean toward the British Tornado airframe and more of a delta wing.

[@innerspace56]

good point 0m1nous. Maybe a chute for low speed malfunctions and an ejection seat for high speed. This would add considerable weight and cost to the aircraft, to be sure. It merits thought- for we are talking about peoples' lives.

[@vanarken]

actually they use lego blocks stuck to drinking straws using chewed gum collected from the dirt roads of london. they experimented with chewed gum from ethiopia but it is a verry rare substance as the ethiopians tend to swallow. it is a complicated composite, but is strong enough to support the briggs and straton V 20 and a 1/2 engine up to speeds of mach 20. if you have any similar questions, check pen island (dot) com for answers.

[@curbowman]

Amazing airplane... Where did you find this video? Anyway, thank you for sharing; this jet was meant to be the ultimate DIY aircraft. I imagine how delighted ex-fighter pilots would have been if the BD-10 was complete.

[@wildh0rse1]

Can someone explain to me in techincal terms why these planes were so unstable? Was it a poorly designed airframe?

[@frankh40yearsago.99]

Where did you get your info from? cruise speed is 593 mph and top speed is mach 1.4 good design, but this guy who designed it doesnt have the resources like boeing Northrop, etc

[@b0nes2]

How old is this video?

[@THEMAN080]

It takes balls to fly a Jet like this... You would never catch me in one. They had a nasty habit of disintegrating in mid air as well as killing pilots in other creative ways...

[@manuelurbina8321]

These airplane its like a bd-5j with two turbines ?

[@newbiepreppertv697]

Viper Jet too is a successful platform. Sorry, forgot to mention that one.

[@TheJlbrecher]

The Viper never made it to the air.

[@wildh0rse1]

So the design was inherently unstable? Requiring fly by wire?

[@flydenny1]

Flew the BD-10 with Skip Holm at Minden a few years ago...hot airplane...though there have been a few problems...

[@EF5Cyniclone]

The video never seemed to mention it, but since he put the ladder behind him, I assume it was only a single-seat aircraft? The size of the canopy and placement of the seat looks like its designed to accomodate another though...

[@matty4z]

whats there cost?

[@jimharrydariusjr.whitesell4026]

12,000 fpm climb rate