• James 'Jim' Bede, a prolific and sometimes controversial airplane designer, died at 82, known for creating over a dozen aircraft types including the iconic BD-5 micro jet featured in a James Bond film. • He was a pivotal figure in the 1960s and 70s, widely recognized as a 'father of the kit building movement' despite a string of business failures. • Bede's reputation was marred by overstating performance and understating build times for his kitplanes, exemplified by only about 150 BD-5s being built from over 11,000 deposits. James 'Jim' Bede, the sometimes-controversial airplane designer who created more than a dozen airplanes types since the 1960s — including the Bede BD-5J micro jet that appeared in a James Bond film — died on July 9 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was 82. Born in Cleveland in April 1933, Bede graduated from Wichita State University in Kansas with a degree in aeronautical engineering. He briefly joined North American Aviation, but left the company in 1961 to found his own aircraft design firm. The BD-1 kitplane, which became the low-wing American Aviation AA1 Yankee Clipper, was his first design.