The BD-10 was the late 1980s-early-`90s model of Jim Bede's versions of flying snake oil. A lot of people forget that, in exchange for not being prosecuted for taking deposits on the BD-5 in an aviation equivalent of a pyramid scheme (a trick that later sank the Eclipse jet), Bede was banned for ten years from selling airplanes or kits or plans. But as soon as the time on his suspension ran out, Bede was at it again, this time with the BD-10.
The jet had problem after problem. The empty weight ballooned by 50%. It was nowhere near as fast as Bede claimed and the jet's range was about that of an early Cessna 172. Five were built. Two suffered structural failures in flight, killing the pilots. A third had an asymmetric flap retraction; the plane crashed and the pilot was killed. One is in a hangar in Arizona, the other survivor is in a failed museum in Toronto.
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