BD-5J
The Bede BD-5J — the world's smallest jet, the homebuilt micro that James Bond flew through a hangar in *Octopussy* — captured as an RC EDF scale model.
About
The Bede BD-5 series was created in the late 1960s by U.S. aircraft designer Jim Bede and introduced to the homebuilt market in kit form by Bede Aircraft Corporation, the company Bede founded in Cleveland in 1961. The piston-powered BD-5 was the original — a tiny, single-seat, mid-engine pusher with retractable landing gear, distinctive bullet-canopy, and the kind of swept-back stance that made it look fast at rest. The BD-5J was the jet-powered variant, fitted with a Sermel TRS-18-046 turbojet — and at its 1971 debut and for decades after, it held the Guinness record as the world's smallest jet aircraft. It is also the first homebuilt jet ever flown.
The BD-5J's place in popular culture was secured by the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy. The pre-titles sequence — Roger Moore's Bond escaping pursuers by flying a jet through a hangar — was filmed with the real BD-5J, piloted by airshow performer John "Corky" Fornof, who had recommended the type to producer Cubby Broccoli for the sequence. The same airframe later appeared as a hangar-wall trophy in Die Another Day (2002). The Sermel TRS-18 turbojet gave the real BD-5J a maximum speed in excess of 310 mph, a 260 mph cruise, and a 2,800 ft-per-minute climb to a 30,000 ft service ceiling.
The BD-5J silhouette — tiny, low-set, mid-engine — is one of the more eye-catching jet subjects in RC scale flying. Foam and composite EDF BD-5J kits appear in the small-jet category at modern fly-ins, where the type's pop-culture pedigree gives it presence out of proportion to its physical size.
In the simulator
A small, fast, demanding jet that captures the personality of the real BD-5J. Quick on the controls, with the kind of approach speeds that demand precision, and visually small at altitude — pilots have to work to keep orientation in mind. Use it to practice precise jet flying with a small target. Pairs with airport-class landscapes. A different character from the heavier military jets in this same pack — civilian-microjet personality versus carrier-attack and strategic-bomber heft.
