Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES
Rights to the defunct Bede Jet and its ill-fated BD-10 supersonic jet have been acquired by Vortex Aircraft, which has already begun redesigning the aircraft as the Vortex PhoenixJet for civil and military applications.
The major change will be a slightly larger, but subsonic, wing. Although the BD-10 will no longer meet its original supersonic design aims, the wing will still produce a cruise speed of at least 350kt (650km/h) at 15,000ft (4,600m), says Vortex chief executive Gary Kauffman.
The new wing will be easier to build and will carry more fuel in bladders, resulting in a range of around 2,050km (1,100nm). "The wing will enable better slow-speed handling, as well as more fuel capacity," says Kauffman. "It will also be easier to build, being one piece rather than the original three-piece unit."
Other changes include a more modern turbofan to replace the original General Electric CJ610 or J85, as well as a pressurised cockpit and updated instrument display and controls.
Otherwise, the original Bede-designed systems and components will remain unchanged, says Vortex, which will target the initial versions of the PhoenixJet at the military primary-trainer market. The aircraft, offered in the past as a kitplane, will be redesigned as close as possible to US Federal Aviation Regulations Part 23 standards.
"We're completing computational fluid dynamic analysis, computer modelling and flutter testing which has never been done on this aircraft before," says Kauffman. Testing should be completed by around February 1998, he adds, with a proof-of-concept aircraft flying "within four or five months".
Initial research-and-development work is being done at the Vortex headquarters in San Diego, California, but the company is hoping to buy the manufacturing site in Nevada where the last Bede licensee, Fox Aircraft, set up a factory.
Eventually, Vortex hopes to transfer production to San Diego again. The first aircraft with all the changes could be flying by late 1998, says Kauffman.
The redesign will be the fourth attempted comeback for the tiny jet, after at least two disasters. The first ended in December 1994 when Mike Van Wagenen, founder of Peregrine Flight International (PFI), was killed flight-testing the production prototype BD-10.
The second ended in August 1995 in similar circumstances, when Wagenen's successor, Joseph Henderson, was killed flight-testing another newly built aircraft, then renamed the Peregrine PJ-2.
Despite some claims of sales, none was made and, in February 1997, Bede Jet filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
At a federal bankruptcy sale, Vortex acquired the rights of Bede Jet, but not the sole remaining prototype aircraft.
The rights to develop and market a military-trainer version of the BD-10 were bought in 1996 from Fox Aircraft - the renamed PFI - by Ontario-based Monitor Jet.
Source: Flight International
