engine. This was sixteen months after deposits had been taken, which led to some griping in the press. The stability of the aircraft with the original V-tail was marginal at best and clearly needed a redesign. With the original fibreglass fuselage, this was a time-consuming process, so the decision was made to switch to an all-metal fuselage with the components incorporating compound curves produced using hydroformed aircraft-grade aluminum alloy. These could be modified with relative ease during the testing cycle. It also made economic sense as the orders rolled in, the $30,000 in tooling would be spread over what was now a large order book. By December 1971, the tooling for the new fuselage was in development. The aircraft now featured a longer, more pointed nose, whereas the N500BD had been patterned on the ASW 15 and had a more rounded, egg-like shaping at the front. While this work was in progress, Bede continued to experiment with modifications to the empennage, eventually abandoning the V-tail for a more conventional rudder and horizontal stabilizer layout with highly swept surfaces. Further testing on N500BD showed flow interference between the horizontal surfaces and the propeller, and the stabilizer was raised six inches to correct it, placing it about midway up the rear fuselage. N501BD The first example of the new fuselage arrived in March 1972, and was fitted with a new Kiekhaefer Aeromarine engine Bede had seen at the Oshkosh Airshow in 1971. Finished as N501BD, numerous small delays prevented it from flying until July 11, 1972. These flights demonstrated continued problems with the pitch stability; after briefly considering an all-flying stabilator, it was again redesigned with more area and less sweep, becoming much more conventional in layout. The program was now far too large for Bede to handle alone. In March 1972, he hired Burt Rutan to head the flight test department, who was soon joined by Les Berven as chief test pilot. They took over development, giving Bede more time to work on business issues. This was proving difficult enough, as Kiekhaefer and Bede could not reach an agreement about deliveries, forcing him to change to a similar 40 hp Hirth Motoren design, then selecting a larger 55 hp Hirth, instead. Several additional problems turned up during testing. Stick forces were very low, but this was easily addressed by making the servo tabs 50% larger. A more worrying development was that