In article ,
Ted Parvo wrote:

If it's never flown, how can it get an aircraft record? Was this claim
used to market the aircraft or designers, based on this specific kit
that never flew?

Many BD-5Js _did_ fly. Mr Jiminez just never flew the one he bought.

No-one involved seems eager to answer these questions, and they
shouldn't be. It is a curiosity that the record holder of 25 years
angrily won't,

No surprise there. Jiminez was *NOT* the owner of the record-holding aircraft
for most of that time. He bought it from the original owner in 2004, and
never flew it.o

Further, the 1988-built, twin-jet powered Cri-Cri of Nicolas Charmont
weighs in (the Guiness measurement criteria for 'smallest'), at just over
*half* the weight of Mr. Jiminez's plane.

The Wikipedia article "Bede_BD-5' is reasonably accurate.

and the issuer of the record claims complete ignorance
of this aircraft, or the BD5. No hits on a search of their site.

Dunno where you were looking, I found:
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-1000/smallest-aircraft,-jet-aircraft/
referenced in the Wikipedia article above. It loads.

A Guiness site search for 'smallest jet' produces a link -- which appears
like it is intended to connect to the above page, but the link is defective.
{a 'coding' error by the site maintainer}

A site search for 'BD-5' also produces the same defective link.

If there were a simple answer, I'd have it by now, but there seems to
be no answer at all, and that's just a bit damn weird, as is the
holder of this "record".

The Cri-Cri, designed by Michael Columbian, as built by Nicolas Charmont
using two jet engines (tail number F-PZPR) in _1988_, handily beats Jiminez's
BD-5 as the 'worlds smallest jet', by weight -- the criteria for the Guiness
rating -- at 80kg, vs Jiminez's plane at 162kg.

As this Cri-Cri was built 16 years _before_ Jiminez 'claimed' the record,
the only reason Jiminez's pseudo-record exists is that neither Mr. Columbian,
of the original Cri-Cri, nor Mr. Charmont, the jet-engined builder, have
bothered to notify Guiness.

'a bit damn weird' is a gross understatement! If the name "Jim Campbell"
means anything to you, Jiminez is/was one of his cronies/lap-dogs. And even
_less_ reliable.