The airplane was involved in radar testing as part of its services to the military as a cruise missile surrogate. The BD-5J held the Guinness record for the World's Smallest Jet for over 25 years. Bob Bishop originally garnered the record with one of his jets, and in November 2004 the record changed hands to Juan Jiménez of San Juan, Puerto Rico, whose BD-5J weighed in 80 lbs (36 kg) lighter than Bishop's jet. The primary difference was the use of an earlier Microturbo turbojet, the simpler 022 Couguar, which weighed less. After Bede Aviation collapsed, Bede took on a number of engineering projects under Bede Design. One of the first was a project with his cousin to produce the Bede Car, which used an 80 hp motorcycle engine driving a ducted fan for propulsion. Built primarily from fiberglass on aluminum, the car was to have weighed just under 1,000 lb (500 kg), less than a third of a normal four-seater built of steel. The advantage to the design was a claimed 120 miles/gallon (2.0 L/100 km) fuel economy. Bede Industries, his cousin's company, intended to introduce the car starting in 1982, but the prototype proved the infeasibility of the concept. The car lacked power at low speeds, so low that it could not even roll up an inclined driveway for parking without "gunning" it. There was some talk of adding electric motors for low speed operation and reversing, but it is not clear if these were fitted. The economy ratings also seemed hopelessly optimistic, based on fuel flow rates of the engine without the actual car. The fate of the prototype is unknown. Another automobile project followed, this time a smaller motorcycle-like vehicle. The prototype was based on a production motorcycle, but "stretched" and surrounded with a fiberglass shell reminiscent of the BD-5. During its long gestation period it was known as the Autocycle or BD-200, and later as the LiteStar and Pulse. About 360 were produced and sold. Within weeks of the FTC Consent Decree expiring in 1989, Bede announced the design of a new two-seat high-speed jet, the Bede BD-10. The original idea appears to have come from a friend, Mike Van Wagenen. He formed a company specially for this project, Bede Jet at the Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, Missouri, just outside St. Louis.