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.

FMI: www.fac.mil.co, www.emavi.edu.co, www.bd5.com