How many of you remember the Bede BD-5J single-seat microjet aircraft? It was made famous by its inclusion in the opening sequence of the James Bond film "Octopussy", flown, of course, by the hero.
The BD-5J went on to be developed into the Small Manned Aerial Radar Target, Model 1 (SMART - 1), which was used by the US military as a simulated cruise missile for training purposes.
That idea is still with us, even though most BD-5J's are no longer flying. There is, however, an even better-performing home-build microjet available, the Sonex JSX-2. Here's footage from its introduction in 2014.
The tiny Sonex jets are currently in use over Michigan for simulated cruise missile training, just like their predecessors. The War Zone reports:
Tiny JSX-2 microjets, each with a pilot crammed inside, have been zipping around the skies over Michigan playing the part of hostile aerial threats like drones and cruise missiles as part of a large force exercise. The use of the JSX-2s in this role underscores U.S. military concerns about the ever-growing dangers drones and cruise missiles pose, including to the U.S. homeland, and the parallel demand for more and better ways to simulate them in training.
“Northern Strike (NS) 24-2 [is] one of the Department of Defense’s largest reserve component readiness exercises” and is “focused on expeditionary skills, command and control, sustainment and joint integrated fires,” according to a Michigan National Guard press release. More than 6,300 personnel from 32 U.S. states and territories, as well as “five international partners,” are participating in this latest iteration of Northern Strike, which has air, maritime, and ground components.
The single-seat JSX-2 is powered by a small TJ100 turbojet made by PBS Aerospace in the Czech Republic, which has a maximum thrust output of 281 pounds, according to the manufacturer. It is an evolution of the JSX-1 from Oshkosh, Wisconsin-headquartered Sonex Aircraft, which was unveiled in 2009. The improved JSX-2 that followed in the early 2010s is bigger and has a more streamlined design, as well as fully retractable landing gear. It also has a parachute recovery system that can be deployed via rocket in the event of an inflight emergency. The JSX-1 and JSX-2 have been sold in kit form on the commercial market. Sonex markets its current iteration of the kit as the SubSonex Personal Jet, a design it says has a cruising speed between 230 and 240 miles per hour and a maximum range of 410 miles.
There's more at the link.
That looks like all sorts of fun for the pilots of the two microjets. In fact, if Larry Lambert and myself could wedge ourselves into those cockpits and take the pilots' places for a morning, think of the fun we could have! "You want adversary targets? We'll give you adversary targets!" Oh, the shenanigans we could get up to . . .
Peter
10 comments:
The Sonex looks like it was inspired by the design of the Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger . Are there any other aircraft that had the turbine mounted dorsally, behind the pilot ?
For my A&P classes, we got to assemble a Bede but the school did not have an engine so it never flew, last I knew it was hanging from the ceiling of the school's main hangar.
There are a number that had the air intake mounted dorsally (e.g. NAA F-107, General Atomics MQ-20, etc.), but their engines were/are inside the fuselage in the conventional position. I don't know of others where the engine was outside and above the fuselage.
There are seaplanes with the engine externally mounted back there to keep it well away from the water. It's not uncommon for motor gliders as well, and this is a development of a glider.
One of my favorite tidbits from the Bede story is that Jim Bede never flew in one. He was a big guy, and simply couldn't fit into the very small cockpit.
Looks like a POS. Underpowered, unstable and all it can do is whifferdills? Nope. Give me the relatively unsafe BD5.
I was at the University of Missouri at Rolla when a Bede Aviation employee flew a BD-5J into Rolla National and addressed our AIAA chapter. I have pictures.
Sad to say family and I were at this airshow--
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1992/09/14/pilot-killed-in-crash-at-california-air-show/
Pilot was flying his routine to the "Star and Stripes Forever" played over the P.A. As reported, he flew a figure "9". Last transmission: "I'm too low".
They just had one at the Fargo Airsho 2024. It climbs pretty fast.
There was business in San Jose in the 70's-80's that built some of the BD-5 kits for people. They engineered the Turbo Honda engine setup, among other upgrades. For a while they had what I think was the first BD-5J, built by Richard Bach ("Jonathan Livingston Seagull"), sitting inside the shop. Poor thing was wrinkled everywhere. The new owner forgot to lock the trailer tongue latch and safety chains, and launched the trailer and plane off a freeway overpass. The engine was one of the few things salvaged from the wreck. $100k aircraft with only partial insurance coverage, since he wasn't planning on flying it for a bit.
The shop owner told me that when he approached a jetliner airport to land the Honda powered model, the plane was so clean that he had trouble staying under the maximum airspeed for that area when he put the nose down to follow atc's directions. They first flew it minus gear doors, and still clocked in excess of 230mph, IIRC.
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