A BEDE JET BD-10 turbojet-powered private jet crashed on 30 December, 1994, killing the pilot, Michael Van Wagenen - president and founder of Peregrine Flight International, the company which recently acquired the rights to certificate and manufacture the BD-10 for the general-aviation market (Flight Inter- national, 4-10 January).
The company refuses to comment on reports that the aircraft broke up during a high-speed run. Described as a "production prototype", the BD-10 had been completed by Peregrine subsidiary Fox Aircraft, formed to help buyers build the aircraft from kits and was being used to test the pressurisation system and to expand the flutter envelope from 280kt (520km/h) to 410kt, to clear the aircraft for its planned, maximum Mach number of 0.94.
The aircraft crashed during the third test flight of the day, but the company declines to comment on what task the pilot was undertaking at the time of the accident. The BD-10 had been flown 24 times since its first flight on 11 November 1994.
A report on the accident is expected to be completed by Peregrine and a team of professional accident-investigators within two weeks. The Nevada-based company says that a decision on whether to proceed with completion of the ten BD-10s now under assembly, and with certification and production of the aircraft as the PJ-1, will depend on investigation's outcome.
Peregrine had decided to stop offering the aircraft as a kit because of "the sophistication of the design and complexity of assembly".
Source: Flight International
