Remarks and additional photos
by Stefanie
Brochocki: "The photo you are inquiring about, the Brochocki
BKB-1, was designed by my dad, Stefan Brochocki, and built by him
along with two colleagues, Alfred Bodek and Witold Kasper (formerly
Kasprzyk) back in the 50's. It no longer exists as it crashed back in
the early seventies. It was registered as CF-ZDK-X in Canada, then
N2991 in the USA.
The original aircraft was black & white. Sometime in
the late 60's, Kasper painted it red & white and added those
triangular "stingers" at the trailing edge of the wings
near the tips. He also extended the small vertical fence to the upper
surface of the wingtips. The glider flew quite nicely according to
the Canadian test pilots, but Brochocki and his team never considered
the testing and modification complete.
Kasper later renamed it the
BKB-1A when he removed the ballast in the nose to move the CG back
for aerobatics purposes, but it was the same plane. Many folks were
confused into thinking there were two BKB's. The BKB-1A crashed in
1972 killing the pilot who was allegedly doing forbidden manoeuvres.
Kasper built a longer wingspan version (50ft) called Bekas. It had
flexibility problems in the wings and crashed but was never repaired.
It was similar to the BKB but had a slightly turned up nose instead
of a rounded one, slightly longer fuselage, and tip rudders that were
larger and more square-ish.
Since the two gliders were painted the
same colour scheme, many people confused the two. Many people I've
interviewed thought they were the same plane. The BKB-1A was never
rebuilt. I believe two more Bekas were built. One, in glass fiber, is
reputed to be in Oregon, USA somewhere, another one in Arizona, USA. Neither is
flying."
See BKB web page
for more information on this aircraft.
