Aviator kept remarkable airplane alive

Only a few hundred kits have ever made it in the air, and many of those pilots had Keith Hinshaw to thank. Bede Aircraft Inc. struck a chord, and was overwhelmed by orders soon after the tiny, single-seat BD-5 was introduced to the world at the 1970 EAA convention in Oshkosh, Wis.

Wildly popular but plagued by rotten luck—the engine manufacturer went bankrupt just before the first production engines were to be delivered, for example—the BD-5 left its authors bankrupt and the dreams of thousands in shambles.


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Aviator kept remarkable airplane alive