16 Facts About Jim Bede

James R Bede was an American aircraft designer and developer, particularly noted for his development of influential, fast, efficient, light aircraft, including his BD-1, and the BD-4, BD-5 and BD-10 kitplanes.

Jim Bede designed well over a dozen aircraft starting in the 1960s, but a string of business failures, and legal, technical and safety problems kept most of these designs out of widespread use.

Jim Bede graduated from West Technical School in Cleveland in 1952 and attended Fenn College and the Municipal University of Wichita, receiving his Aeronautical Engineer Bachelor of Science Degree in 1957.

Jim Bede started work as a performance engineer with North American Aviation that year, where he worked on the FJ-4 Fury and A3J Vigilante projects for the United States Navy.

Jim Bede stayed at North American only briefly, returning home to Cleveland in 1961 to form Bede Aviation with his father James, in order to produce a kit-built aircraft of his own design, the BD-1.

Jim Bede was later purchased by Grumman, becoming Grumman American.

Jim Bede nicknamed the airplane "LOVE", an acronym for "Low Orbit, Very Efficient".

Jim Bede remained convinced of the validity of the kit plane market, and re-formed his company as Jim Bede Aircraft.

In early 1972 Jim Bede hired Burt Rutan to head the flight test department, and he made a number of improvements.

Jim Bede worked on new aircraft designs, including the Bede BD-8, a single-place aerobatic aircraft.

Jim Bede formed a company specially for this project, Bede Jet at the Spirit of St Louis Airport in Chesterfield, Missouri, just outside St Louis.

Jim Bede's prototype was completed in 1992 and began testing, although it suffered from a number of minor teething problems.

Meanwhile, Jim Bede had sold the military rights to Monitor Jet of Canada, but nothing ever came of this.

Months later it became clear that Jim Bede's company was in financial trouble.

Jim Bede re-used naming on several occasions, which makes his designation system somewhat confusing.

Jim Bede died of an aneurysm on July 9,2015, in Cleveland, Ohio, at age 82.