ANN's Own Juan Jimenez Breaks Record Held Since 1976!

Guinness World Records has awarded Juan Jimenez the record for the World's Smallest Jet. Jimenez is the owner of a BD-5J Microjet, US registration N3038V. He lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with his wife and son.

Jimenez, a pilot since 1974, began building his own aircraft in 1996. The BD-5 jet, which he purchased as an unfinished project in 2001 from Quentin Campbell in Australia, is his third BD-5 project.

After the aircraft arrived from Australia, Jimenez worked continuously to make it ready for flight. About a year before finishing the project, he realized that he might have the lightest BD-5J Microjet ever built, and preliminary weight measurements confirmed this.

In June, after completing the aircraft, Jimenez asked Guinness World Records for permission to challenge the record for World's Smallest Jet, which had been held by Bobby Bishop and his Silver Bullet BD-5J since 1976. With Bishop's blessing, Jimenez submitted his record attempt information in October 2004, and was awarded the record on November 22.

The Federal Aviation Administration is in the final stages of issuing the aircraft an Experimental, Exhibition (Group IV) airworthiness certificate. Because there are no DAR's in Puerto Rico, the local FSDO handles all experimental aircraft airworthiness certifications. This also means that it takes a little longer, but on the positive side, there is no cost involved.

Once the certificate has been issued, Jimenez says he'll begin flight testing the aircraft, which he has named "El Guaraguao" -- a type of red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) that thrives on the Caribbean island.

FMI: www.bd5.com