What a Great Idea!

What a great idea, design an eays to build, inexpensive kit plane that is fast, safe and fun. This is just what Jim Bede did. He built the BD-17 kit plane called the Nugget. The Nugget is a single place, single engine, low wing, high performance sport aircraft. The BD-17 is an all metal airplane, no fabric other than the cushions, which you can build as a tricycle gear or tail dragger. The fuselage is made entirely of 1/2 inch thick flat aluminum honeycomb sandwich panels. These panels have skins on sides of 2024 T3 .020 aluminum.

The BD-17 Nugget is a relatively small aircraft with a roomy cockpit. It has a 21-1/2 foot wingspan with an overall length of 17.6 feet. It's wings can be folded and it can be parked in your garage. The empty weight is approximately 460 lbs, but it has a gross weight over 750 lbs. It can hold 16 gallons of fuel and it uses about 2.5 to 3.0 gallons an hour.