Any rotary powered BD-5s under construction or flying?

   Jim Rudholm


   The [Mazda] Rotary is too big for a BD-5. Rather it's too heavy. The
   BD-5 is
   designed around a 3 cyl 2-stroke engine. The design weight was about 150
   pounds. Less than 50 hp. Several have been built using the Rotax 2
   cycles. If a proper single rotor is produced, it could work.
   Bill Jepson


Jim,
Actually, the BD-5 was originally going to be powered by a German Hirth
two cylinder two stroke air cooled engine. That engine was unreliable
and was Bede's downfall which brought on bankruptcy.
The Japanese Zenoah three cylinder two stroke engine mentioned above
might have saved him but it came along to late. Corkey  Fornof (he did
the BD-5J flying in the James Bond movie Octopussy.) swears by the Zenoah.
Numerous engines have been tried with mixed results and several failures.
Today the three engines offered by  Ed "Skeeter" Karnes of  Bede-Micro
Tech are a new and improved Hirth, a Solar T-62 turboprop and for those
with deep pockets the JET!

http://www.bd-micro.com/ <http://www.bedemicro.com>

Most alternate engine installations added a substantial amount of weight
to the airframe. Original designed empty weight was 350 lb. There are
many flying BD-5s that almost DOUBLE the original weight estimate. The
Honda EB3 installation, one of the more successful substitute engine
packages, puts out 110 hp but tips the scale at 137 lb. with turbo, rad
and fluids.
My BD-5 uses a Honda but I'd like to convert to a rotary. A 2 rotor of
100hp weighing around 100 lb. would, IMHO, make an ideal package.
John Lewis
N501BD



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