He graduated from West Technical School in Cleveland in 1952 and attended Fenn College and the Municipal University of Wichita, receiving his Aeronautical Engineer Bachelor of Science Degree in 1957.

He stayed at North American only briefly, returning home to Cleveland in 1961 to form Bede Aviation with his father James, in order to produce a kit-built aircraft of his own design, the BD-1.

The BD-1 was a simple and fairly conventional low-wing two-seat design that used some of the latest techniques in aircraft construction.

A number of changes were later introduced into the design to make it more stable, notably a larger horizontal tail, and then a more forgiving airfoil on the main wing.

The system used 164,000 holes drilled into the surface of the wing to suck air from the boundary layer into the interior of the wing, thereby reducing skin friction for better performance, as well as keeping the boundary layer "attached" over a wider variety of angles of attack and thereby increasing lift during high-angle flight and doubling maximum lift as a result.

Other interesting design features were the use of two engines driving a common pusher propeller, aluminum honeycomb panels, and fiberglass landing gear struts.

Bede tried his hand at a record breaking around-the-world flight in a modified Schweizer SGS 2-32 powered glider he called the BD-2.

Most of the fuselage was flat aluminum sheeting, the only major components with compound curves being the fiberglass engine cowling and landing gear pants.

The Micro was a small single-seater that looked like a jet fighter, with the pilot sitting semi-reclined under a large fighter-like Plexiglas canopy.

The fuselage was originally to be constructed from fiberglass panels over an aluminum frame, housing a two-cylinder air-cooled 40 hp engine driving a pusher propeller.

The aircraft featured retractable undercarriage, split flaps, spoilers to reduce speed for landing, and a V-tail for decreased drag in cruise.

[14] On February 24, 1971, the first $200 deposit to reserve a "place in line" to receive a kit was accepted, with a target shipping date of May 24, 1972.

The prototype flew briefly on September 12, 1971, powered by a 36 hp Polaris Industries snowmobile engine.

In early 1972 Bede hired Burt Rutan to head the flight test department, and he made a number of improvements.

The plane entered testing with the 440cc Polaris design, but this was replaced with a similar engine from Keikhaefer Aeromarine.

During the bankruptcy proceedings it was learned that the money ostensibly being used to build kits was instead spent on a variety of projects, $9 million having disappeared in the process.

As a result, Bede entered a consent decree with the FTC to no longer accept deposits on aircraft for a period of ten years.

[20] Bob Bishop had purchased 20 BD-5J kits as soon as they had appeared, and many of the flying examples started life in this batch of twenty.

The BD-5J was a popular airshow fixture, and Bishop logged more than 1,500 hours in his jets, which he now operates for military customers as a cruise missile surrogate.

The aircraft was lost after a fuel flow sensor burst in flight, causing a fire in the engine compartment.

The airplane was involved in radar testing as part of its services to the military as a cruise missile surrogate.

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.

[21] Bede Industries, his cousin's company, intended to introduce the car starting in 1982, but the prototype proved the infeasibility of the concept.

There was some talk of adding electric motors for low speed operation and reversing, but it is not clear if these were fitted.

Performance estimates were fantastic: after brake release the 1,580 lb (715 kg) aircraft was claimed to be able to climb to 10,000 feet (3050 m) in under 60 seconds, would cruise for 2,000 miles (3,200 km) at up to 45,000 ft (13,700 m) altitude in a 9 psi (465 mm Hg) pressurized cabin, and could reach supersonic speeds of up to Mach 1.4.

Bede's prototype was completed in 1992 and began testing, although it suffered from a number of minor teething problems.

It was sent to the Reno Air Races in 1994 to drum up sales, where it suffered from some wrinkling around the vertical stabilizers, indicating too much flex.

[25] By this time the prototype ended up being seriously tail heavy, and in order to move the center of gravity back to a reasonable position for a test flight, 170 lb (77 kg) of lead was added in the nose.

However these plans apparently did not generate a lot of interest, and he moved on to the single-seat BD-17 Nugget and two-seat BD-18, both based on a layout similar to the original BD-1 but dramatically updated.

[citation needed] Bede re-used naming on several occasions, which makes his designation system somewhat confusing.