F-WZAV – BD5J – France – Destroyed

[Benjamin Morgan]

Originally built by Aeronca (hence AE in the registration) in preparation of a proposal to manufacture the aircraft in series and given US registration N501AE. Incomplete set of parts provided by Bede. Engine installed by Microturbo. Because of legal problems of Bede Aircraft and possible liability of Aeronca, the management did not want to get involved, and the aircraft was registered as a ‘Hollenbaugh-Murphy BD-5J’ in September 1975 (Bob Hollenbaugh is confirmed as an Aeronca engineer). The plane only made high-speed taxi tests and was not flown, again because of fears of liability. Transferred to Bede Aircraft, paying around 10,000 US$ for expenses made. All links to Aeronca were removed (papers, registration), and almost certainly re-registered as N150BD.

N150BD: cn 5J-0005. Not 100% sure, but almost certainly formerly N501AE (see there). Bob Bishop flew it while at Bede. It went to France as F-WZAV (see there) in 1976. At the time Bede was in a legal dispute with Microturbo about unpaid engines, but this was likely settled by turning over N150BD.

F-WZAV: entered in French register May 1976, Microturbo (France) owned. Formerly N501AE and N150BD (see there), reportedly cn 5J-0004. Presented at the SBAC Farnborough show in September 1976, with a red-white-blue scheme, flown by Airbus test pilot Pierre Baud. The Farnborough appearance was sponsored by the US company Ames Industrial Corporation, the American subsidiary of Microturbo, and the UK agent for Microturbo. In some photos it does not carry the French registration, but ‘MJ90’ on the left side of the cockpit. MJ90 (Micro Jet 90, no idea what the 90 stands for) was the designation Ames wanted to use for the BD-5J, the rights of which it had taken over from Bede Aircraft, following a lawsuit following the crash of N5BD with an Air Force colonel at the controls. The aircraft was also noted at the 32nd Salon at Le Bourget in June 1977. Stored later that year by Microturbo. After three years of work and the installation of a TRS18-046 by Microturbo, it was flown again on 7 June 1982 by Jean-Marie Saget, chief test pilot of Avions Marcel Dassault (he flew the Alpha Jet and Mirage 4000). It was owned by the aeroclub ‘Cercle Aeronautique Marcel Dassault’ (CAMD). A ‘Cercle Aeronautique’ is an association which takes the name of a man in homage, in this case Marcel Dassault, but it has no official links with the Dassault factory. It was painted in white overall with light and dark blue stripes on the fuselage and wings, described as the colors of Jean-Marie Saget. Further markings are ‘-BD5J-CAMD-‘ under the cockpit and ‘-TRS18-MICROTURBO-‘ on the rear fuselage. It made a hard landing in 1984/1985 and required extensive structural repairs of (at least) the fuselage. These were not performed, and instead the aircraft was donated to a aeronautical college near Aix en Provence. It was later sold to M. Muller, who plans a rebuild, but confirmed that the fuselage is beyond economical repair. It has been reported that the aircraft was reregistered F-BZAV at some point (F-Wxxx is for prototypes, after receiving a certificate it is re-registered), but this very likely never materialised.

F-BZAV: formerly F-WZAV, see above. Situation is not clear on this registration, and most likely it was never actually used. Listed in this (unofficial) French 2002 register (no longer online but accessed through the Wayback Machine), with c/n 50005 instead of 5J-0004 (see above). Reportedly owned by Chris Esquirrol (spelling not sure). The official French registry has no F-BZAV listed, only a pencil-written entry that the registration was reserved on 21 March 1976 for a BD-5J with cn 5-0005.

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