Paul,  I remember the BD,s possibly 40 years ago, and they looked very
"rural and agricultural" with square sides looking it was made from a
box, so looked no further.

Then 15 years ago the rage was the glastar sportsman which I bought.
However the latest BD 4 looks somewhat different and must get
substantial lift from the Fuse similar to the Aust Victa airtourer.
Still slab sided but with ease of construction and the outstanding
performance I agree it is definitely worth a look especially with the
rotary.  From what I can see the complete kit for the BD4 is $36.000
whereas the same kit for a sportsman is probably $50,000.  The
difference pays for the rotary engine!

While I have never regretted the sportsman, the construction time of 700
hours was gone about half way!  I can see that a BD4 build could be
realistic at the same 700 hours.  Definitely faster than the sportsman.
That wing looks great and nearly 10 feet less wingspan than my
sportsman.  What they don't tell you with a sportsman is that it needs
vortec generators fitted to be able to safely stall land the dog.  I
believe that is the reason for the scoops on the wings and the mods to
the elevator again at the join of the elevator and the fuse to attempt
to mask a bad problem especially with a tail wheel.  AS always nothing
is what it seems.

Neil Unger.


Slab sided never seemed to bother the speed much dating back to WW I.
The German Albatross had a moncoque round fuse and the SE5, Camel
and all other fighters were slab sided. Then the Tail Wind came out
and it was fast for it's power. The latest slab sided aircraft is the Stratus Launcher.

Now that is slab sided :-) I got to see it in person three weeks ago :-)

It is being built near by.

BTW a lot of the photos one sees now have been heavily retouched.
It did not look that good when I saw it in the hangar. Much of it was not painted.

Paul Lamar