I was involved to a small degree with a BA captain - an experienced home builder - who bought the bd5 kit. Unfortunately Jim Bede was unable to obtain a suitable engine - the first engine was a 60bhp Hirth snowmobile engine which was unreliable and had a very short life. It was cancelled and an American outgoard motor company agreed to produce an engine but after a while this was also cancelled.The Japanese Xenoah company then produced a beautiful 3 cylinder 2 stroke engine but the Japanese airworthiness authority decided it had to have a type certificate which then made it too expensive after which I think Bede just ran out of money.The kits themselves were very well produced,the fuselage pressings were impressive. It was certainly not an aircraft for the amateur to fly,high wing loading with what appeared to me to be a supercritical wing section must have made the stall characteristics a bit vicious.I saw the 5J fly at Farnborough and it certainly had a long t/o run but once airborne I think due to the small size looked spectacularly fast. I last saw the BA captains aircraft hanging in the roof of his garage -he was attempting to convert it to a front engine.