I wonder if you could fit the Sonex's engine in a BD5J? That might revitalize the design. For what is worth, the BD looks a thousand times more refined than the Sonex. Of course, the thin tapered wing probably leads to some nasty tip stall behavior on the BD.

Ouch. I hadn't been keeping up with the latest; I feel a bit bummed out to hear all that bad news.

When I was in college, a buddy and I flew a 172 to Newton KS to see the BDs. We saw the prop version and the jet. If I had money at the time, I would have put a deposit down on one. Lucky for me, I didn't have much money.

PBS Aerospace in the Czech Republic makes the engine. Their primary market is drones and cruise missiles, and they are not at all interested in the manned aircraft market. Too bad because it's a beautiful little engine.

I too lusted once briefly for a BD-5. Then went to aero school and realized that if someone really thought they were going to fly a plane with a trivial amount of hp, they or at least this design was either wrong or a sham. Opinions as to either abound.

Physics does not care who you are or what you think your design "should" be capable of.

Later people found out that the physics allows that if you move a wing fast enough with a light engine, aka a turbine, it will in fact fly. Maybe even delightfully so for twenty minutes and you have the requisite high speed training (i.e. likely former military).

Those that fly are curios and not very interesting to watch as they are so small and IMHO unimpressive. Little darts briefly streaming across the sky. Give me an F-35 demo any day.

I have always felt terrible for those who wasted money or worse wasted lives with this design.

You could always pull the power on the Tripacer to simulate the glide of a BD-5