James R. Bede ’57 built his first airplane at the age of six. The aeronautical engineering graduate then proceeded to become a prolific aircraft designer whose many concepts included a micro jet – the BD-5J – that flew for a James Bond movie.
Over the course of his high-profile career, Bede introduced the aviation world to 18 designs, including the BD-5J, made famous from a scene in the 1983 movie “Octopussy,” and the BD-10, a tandem lightweight kit airplane that could reach a speed of Mach .86 and rocket to 12,000 feet in under a minute. He also designed the piston-engine BD-5 pusher and the extreme long-range BD-2, in which Bede as pilot broke three distance records and made an attempt at a solo globe-circling record in 1969.
After his college graduation, the Cleveland, Ohio, native joined North American Aviation, where he worked as a design engineer on the FJ4 and the A3J aircraft until 1961, when he founded his own aircraft design firm. Based in Springfield, Ohio, the Bede Aviation Corp.’s first goal was the development, certification and sale of a two-seat sport-training airplane with a suggested retail price of $2,500, the BD-1. At the time, the lowest cost for new aircraft for civil use – the Cessna 150, Alon Aircoupe, Piper PA-18 – came in at an average of $8,300.
A devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, friend and noted member of the aviation community, Jim Bede died July 9, 2015 in Cleveland.
