Mon, Sep 27, 2004
School chooses Bede BD-5 design for first aircraft built
in-country by FAC
The School of Military
Aviation of the Colombian Air Force (EMAVI-FAC) is building its
very first airplane. The organization teaches tactical aerial
operations, citizen security, social work and is the primary
educational facility for FAC offices, among other responsibilities
of the 70-year-old institution.
The first airplane that the FAC is building has been designated
the X01-FAC. The aircraft will be flight tested in Cali, Colombia
and the first pilots to fly it will be graduates of the Marco Fidel
Suarez School of Aviation, established in 1933.
The department within the school that is tasked with the
construction of the airplane is the Center for Aeronautical
Technology Investigations, or CITA, for its Spanish initials. The
X01-FAC is being built there, a small single-seat aircraft which
represents the beginnings of a big project that has as its goal the
long term production by Colombia of its own aircraft.
Just what airplane is it that the FAC is building? Jim Bede's
BD-5, modified to fit the needs of the FAC and Colombia, and which
once was flown by James Bond, played by Roger Moore, in the movie
"Octopussy." (Associate Editor Juan Jimenez also owns one of these,
a BD-5J Microjet, N3038V - Ed.) It is on this aircraft that
Colombia is banking to revive an aging fleet of aircraft, without
the resources necessary to renew it.
"The cadets that are studying Mechanical Engineering at the
school are participating in its construction. We are seeking to
become a bridge for communication with the aeronautical industry of
the south," said Gen. Ricardo Rubianogroot, director of the Marco
Fidel Suarez School of Aviation. There are currently a total of 430
cadets in the entire school, which will soon be offering academic
procgrams in aeronautical and electronic engineering.
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