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The Bede BD-5 single seater
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The Bede BD-5 Micro Jet as this neat and nifty sailplane like single seater ultra small and fast jet was called, as it appeared in a Bond movie Octopussy under the name Acrostar. It was brought within reach of the enthusiast as a build it yourself plane in kit form, for the price of a fast two-seater automobile. The late Tom T. and I talked about this endlessly as our next scheme, until suddenly and too soon he reached his ceiling in foul flying weather. The BD-5 Micro is a series of small, single-seat homebuilt aircraft created in the late 1960s by US aircraft designer Jim Bede and introduced to the market primarily in "kit" form by the now-defunct Bede Aircraft Corporation in the early 1970s. The BD-5 has a small, streamlined fuselage holding its semi-reclined pilot under a large canopy, with the engine installed in a compartment in the middle of the fuselage, and a propeller or jet engine in the BD-5J variant, mounted immediately to the rear of the cockpit. The combination of fighter-like looks and relatively low cost led to the BD-5 selling over 5,000 kits or plans, with approximately 12,000 orders being taken for a proposed factory-built FAA certified version.[1] However, few of the kit versions were actually completed due to the company's bankruptcy in the mid-1970s, and none of the factory built "D" models produced, brought on by the failure to deliver a reliable engine for the design. In total, only a few hundred BD-5 kits were completed, although many of these are still being flown today. The BD-5J version holds the record for the world's lightest jet aircraft, weighing only 358.8 lb (162.7 kg). The more general story you may read in Wikipedia.
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