Bede BD-10 - Continued Development

Continued Development

Van Wagenen had already formed Fox 10 Corporation (or later Fox Aircraft) with the intention of helping kit builders complete their aircraft, by providing hangar space, tools, and guidance. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) later ruled this was illegal, although not before Van Wagenen had moved on from this concept, rendering the point moot. In December 1993 Van Wagenen took over the entire BD-10 project, intending to produce completed versions of the design under the name Fox-10 and later Peregrine Falcon.

Fox Aircraft became the aircraft construction corporation under Peregrine Flight International. In addition to Fox, the group included Point 9 the Peregrine Falcon sales company and Aerospace Safety Technologies, which was developing the Thermion (R) Anti-Icing Technology.

Fox's first prototype, N9WZ, was completed in 1994 and entered testing. Although it had been modified to incorporate the stronger tail of Bede's design, it broke up mid-air on 30 December 1994 when the vertical stabilizers failed due to a crossflow condition, killing Van Wagenen. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) later concluded that Bede's fix was severely under-designed, and offered nowhere near the strength that had been calculated. Fox had not performed any testing to verify the redesign of the vertical stabilizer spars before continuing flight testing, instead relying upon the data provided by Bede.

Peregrine Flight International then renamed the design the PJ-2. It redesigned the horizontal and vertical surfaces for another prototype, N62PJ. This aircraft crashed on 4 August 1995 when one flap failed to retract following a go-around. The resulting accident killed the company president, Joseph Henderson, and Peregrine ceased to exist.

In 1996 Bede sold the military rights to Monitor Jet of Canada, which intended to equip it with the Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D engine and sell it as a basic trainer as the MJ-7. Monitor also purchased the single so-far completed kit, N700JP, its pilot apparently not interested in flying it. There appears to have been some interest on the part of the Portuguese Air Force as a replacement for its fleet of Alpha Jets in the training role, but nothing ever came of this. The aircraft was even mentioned briefly during the Canadian Parliamentary Debates.

When a group of investors in Bede's company threatened to foreclose, Bede declared bankruptcy in 1997. The investors formed Vortex Aircraft in San Diego intended to produce completed versions as the PhoenixJet for the military market, terminating Monitor's agreement due to a claimed failed payment. Oddly, Monitor purchased the original prototype, N2BD, at the same auction, although for reasons that are unclear it appears it was never moved. Neither company managed to find any interest in the design, and both companies disappeared, the lawsuit being dropped in 1998.

This left only the second kit-built aircraft, N7FF, still flying. It broke up in midair off the southern coast of California in 2003 after the pilot had radioed a MAYDAY call in which he stated that the aircraft was "disintegrating".

The original prototype N2BD was hangared in Scottsdale, Arizona when the company went bankrupt, and now belongs to Fuel Fresh Inc., which operates a number of jet aircraft. Monitor Jet's example remained in Canada, and eventually ended up in the Toronto Aerospace Museum, along with its JT-15D engine. It has recently been sold to an aviation enthusiast, David Carlaw.