I started my aerospace career at Beechcraft in 1981. I had the distinguished (but not so pleasant) honor of losing my job as a result of the Starship program. I was working on the single engine 38P Lightning flight test program at the time and when they decided to move forward with the Starship the 38P program was canceled and its funds were redirected to the Starship program. But, before I was released, I had the distinct (and fun) privilege to have flown the Starship on a couple of occasions. It is a great airplane. I still have a rare photo taken at the start of the flight test program of the three prototype aircraft in formation in test area Boot Hill One. I have since recently retired and my 45 year aerospace career has come to an end. Seeing these videos and comments about the Starship brings me back to my beginnings and it feels pretty good.
How come that the world of aviation industry let this outstanding beauty live so short. I've always been a fan of Beechcraft airplanes, specially King Airs. But this..... this was way out (ahead) of its time. God bless this gentleman for keeping it alive.
Lifetime Wichita resident here. Those were heady days back then for Beechcraft and Wichita. Starships were a regular sight around town. You knew exactly what was coming at the sound. I literally grew up flying in Wichita. Born in 55’ flew in a Tri Pacer at 16 months and grew with my father owning 4 different aircraft. Started with the Piper then 2 Mooney’s and ended back where he started with another Tri Pacer. Growing up around here you just can’t help but be a little bit of aviation geek. After Walter and then Olive things were never the same. I worked in Olive’s home once and talk about memorabilia; photography and plaques, aviation doo dads of every stripe. Not sure what happed to it all but was enough to start your own museum. Pioneers they were 🇺🇸
Absolutely beautiful! I remember see one fly over my house in Maryland often. Usually around the same time. I knew it was the Starship because of the sound. I’d jump up, tell my wife it was flying over and run out to see it flyby. It was always the highlight of my day. Please don’t let this plane slip into obscurity.❤️
I seen one on occasion at Greater Kankakee Airport Illinois. Apparently, whoever owned it would make infrequent stops there. The sound it made during takeoff and climb out was awesome! Somewhat loud but refined and very smooth, the sound would make you look to see where it was coming from! I seen it a total of 4-6 times about 15 years ago! Quite a beautiful machine!
I was 17 and an exchange student in Wichita, Ks back in 1987/88 - where I by the way had a lovely stay. Anyways, one day, I can't remember where or why, a handful of students and myself from other countries were told that we were going to visit a local business, but we could not share this with anyone but our hostparents. We were told it was in the city, but not anything else than no cameras allowed. Turned out we ended up at Beechcraft, where they escorted us to what they said was their secret production area. Now, if they said that to make the adventure even more adventurous to a bunch of kids, I don't know, but why not. There we got to see one of these beautiful aircrafts. I had always been fascinated by planes and flight, so for me, a kid from an island in Norway, this was mindblowingly cool. To see the wings that far back with the tipsail(?) and the small wings towards the front up close and personal just boggled my sci-fi mind, and the interior was simply out of this world! Still, I seem to remember there were jet engines..? I must be wrong. Please correct my pleasant trip down memory lane if I am wrong here. After all, this was the era of Bon Jovi, Guns n' Roses, The Cult and Billy Idol so it's been a while. Still, they told us they hoped it would become a commercial success targeting both the private and public sector/market. They had kept the plane a secret up to that point, but apparently were getting ready to present it to the public later that or the next year. My dear host father was an engineer at Boeing - and almost tore his hear out when I told him where we had been. He had only heard rumors and seen it flying - and never up close. Wouldn't be surpriced if he took me out for a milkshake and a chat that evening 😉👍
@@savageman819 SouthEast High Golden Buff's baby! 😆👍 When and where were you there? I had a great time too, and have been back a couple of times to visit with my hostfamilies and for a reunion party at school.
IMO Beechcraft was kind of rudderless when Olive Ann Beech died, and perhaps that had something to do with the problems in the Starship program. I used to watch these guys fly in. They were gorgeous, and the sound they made was gorgeous, too. I was very sad to hear that they were being bought back and scrapped. From an engineering and production operations perspective, there was indeed a huge clash between the Rutan "kitplane" composite layup mentality and the formed sheetmetal and rivets production-line at Beech. The company was an early adopter of CFRP composites on such a scale, and learned some very expensive lessons along the way. The costly "failure" of the Starship probably helped lead to the company's purchase by Raytheon. I worked for some time on the Premier program, which was originally meant to be the new Starship, without some of the mistakes. It obviously evolved quite a bit away from the Starship design, but we continued to learn a great deal from that effort and from the lessons of the larger Horizon program (which was a composite-bodied follow-on to the Hawker 850 & 1000, and which actually used the largest autoclaves available in the U.S. at that time). One key lesson-- outsourcing is generally far more expensive than doing it in-house. Another key lesson-- you don't design a composite structure in the same way as you would formed aluminum. In order to realize a benefit from the material switch you have to match your design choices to the strengths and weaknesses of that material, including both how it performs in operation and the processing and production requirements and limitations.
@@PaulLascari Could be I got my order wrong. It just seemed likely because it was such a big cash drain. As for the why of RTN dumping Beech, it was well after the Starship had become a write-off. The Premier I jet, the ongoing costs associated with integrating the Hawker assets and personnel, and the launch of the new Hawker Horizon were big, too, and everything ran over budget, costing much more and taking much longer than "expected" and budgeted for. This ongoing, unplanned cash drain, combined with increasing competition on all levels, could not have been easy for RTN to swallow. During that time period, they took on Hughes Missiles & Defense, along with a giant load of debt. And they had ongoing issues with Rust Engineers and Constructors, which they couldn't even unload for some time because nobody really knew how big the associated liabilities with THAT company were. Once it was widely recognized that RTN was not the glowing success story at integrating its "new" subs, the giant mass of debt became more important (AND the stock dropped in value by ~85% within a few weeks). I think they were just trying to find a firm footing after that. It was also all part of a larger arc where they had earlier swung toward being a conglomerate, and were now swinging back toward being a "pure defense play". I haven't really kept up with their story since 2001, so there may be more interesting events worth considering (as a business case).
I saw a starship pass high overhead as I was walking late one afternoon the airplane was following I-20 headed towards Columbia SC . I have no idea where its final destination was but the engine noise caught my attention as I walked across a bridge that spanned Interstate 20...How I wish I could have been aboard it a very cool design for an aircraft..
Just heard then saw one fly into Centennial airport this morning. Been a fan since I heard/then saw it years ago. This morning was the closest I've been, as it flew directly overhead, heading into land.
Those claiming it was ahead of its time don't seem to realize that at its time the performance numbers, cost and complexity were not competitive in the sector it operates in. The design and composite construction are the only thing it has going for it, the plentiful shortcomings elsewhere, avionics, flight controls, performance and cost of ownership drove the market into a different direction. It nearly put the nail in the coffin for Beechcraft and ultimately it was even dropped from receiving support from Beechcraft despite them supporting other older designs with new parts still. With more modern technology and some design changes to actually achieve the requirements set out by its competitors the design could live on, but the development cost and fierce market competition are unlikely to make it resurface. The industry is going other directions and there is yet to be anyone willing to even so much as provide upgrades for it. You can't even get addon equipment for it, because the electrical system is so tightly spaced it would overheat or brownout the circuit. It really is a dead-end design in terms of the internals.
Never seen it in the air. Is it as super noisy as the P180 Avanti? I live a few miles North of KPIE and had to put up with those noisy birds for a few years as it was the US training center. Still hear one occasionally.
I swear I saw one of these flying into Hamilton / Butler County (Ohio) airport yesterday 4/2/23. Literally flew right over my house in Hamilton. I don't think it was any other lookalike and I don't think there are any replicas being built. Just curious why it came to Hamilton.
Looking at this compared with the Italian Avanti, This American version wins hands down. The Avanti may be a 7 but the starship is a 10. Rutan strikes again
Textron should restart Starship production and make it a CHEAP. Just fix the Canard, get rid of the articulated flaps, drop in a simple Garmin G500 display and give it GE Catalyst engines or the Williams FJ33.
Before the Starship came along, the FAA had never certificated a composite airframe, so they were naturally very cautious when approached with the Starship design. In an effort to err on the safe side, the FAA essentially told Beech that although their design looked good on paper, the design would have to be significantly strengthened to receive certification. Beechcraft did so, adding significant additional structure to both the fuselage and wing. Of course, this added quite a bit of weight to the aircraft, so other components had to be beefed up as well, adding yet more weight and bumped it's weight into Type Rating required category as in the United States, a type rating is required to act as pilot in command (PIC) of any aircraft that exceeds 12,500 pounds maximum takeoff weight. So the PIC of a Starship, who as originally planned could have had (as a BARE MINIMUM to fly) a Private Pilot Certificate(~US$10,000) with Multi-Engine Class(~US$7,000) and Complex, High-Performance and High Altitude(~US$2,000 each) Endorsements gives you a Cost of about US$30,000 for training. But the executive whom already had flown the King Air would have needed just a familiarization on the new glass cockpit. With a Type Certificate requirement, the practical test standards (PTS) for issuance of a type rating essentially are the same as the airline transport pilot PTS, in terms of the required performance standards. So now your PIC needs, an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) Multi-Engine Certificate, which Means you need to match these Prerequisites: *1500 hours of total time as a pilot to include: **500 hours of cross-country flight time. **100 hours of night flight time. **50 hours of flight time in the class (single-engine or multi-engine) of airplane for the rating sought. **75 hours of instrument flight time, in actual or simulated conditions of which 50 hours must be in airplane. **250 hours of flight time as pilot in command, or as second in command performing the duties of pilot in command (under the supervision of the pilot in command), or any combination thereof, to include: ***100 hours of cross-country flight time; and ***25 hours of night flight time. Which gives an approximate cost in the ~US$90,000 for ATP training THEN you have to do the FAA BE-2000 Type Rating which needs a SECOND type rated pilot with you to fly it and Finally you can get an FAA BE-2000S to fly as a solo PIC... Plus With the Increase in Pilot certifications you had It entering a economic recession (1989), at a price comparable to a full blown Private jet (US$5,000,000), AND Raytheon, Beech's parent company, in a bid to attract people to order Starships, had the brilliant idea of offering free maintenance to buyers, which was done by Raytheon Aircraft Services (RAS) a separate company from Raytheon. When RAS facilities had slack periods in the early 90's, many of them found Starships on the ramp to work on. They would work on the Starships whether they needed it or not and many of these airplanes were still owned and operated by Raytheon as leased planes due to the high purchase price. Even if the Starship was owned by a private party, owners didn't care how big the invoice was because Raytheon was paying the tab. With nobody questioning the invoices, one can imagine the scale of the billings that took place. Raytheon Bean-counters would ask RAS to explain why the Starship fleet was so expensive to maintain. RAS would respond that the Starship was a very complex airplane that was difficult to work on. Raytheon accepted these claims and continued paying the maintenance bills. But in reality, the free maintenance program was a billing machine for RAS and nobody at Raytheon had the incentive to figure it out and end it. The free maintenance program resulted in record billings to Raytheon, souring management's view of the Starship and frightening prospective customers. Raytheon management bought the RAS line that the Starship was complex and difficult to work on, eventually putting the red ink to bed by killing Starship production at 53. Some parts of my answer were stolen from Bob Scherer, owner of Starship 2000A NC-51. (www.bobscherer.com/Pages/Starship.htm)
This why I hate Corporate America. What was the point of buying back the 53 aircrafts and destroying/scrapping them? You sold them. Let the owners decide what to do with them. Damn CEOs.
J S Beech thought they would tarnish their reputation, also I think there was some warranty type deal and they worried maintaining them would be too costly. They acted in their best interest; big deal. Obviously they didn't succeed in buying them all back
Beach could not keep up with the warranty. You can't let an airplane fly if everything's not working and if it's under the manufacturer's control then there could be a lot of problems. I worked for Raytheon Aircraft during that time they were called back
The owner of Starship N514RS, Bob Scherer, SUED his 86-year-old MOTHER because she wanted to leave her small estate, which was 1/25th the size his, to her grandchildren because she had never set up a trust for their benefit, as was the case for spoiled son Bob, who enjoyed inheritance since the age of 21. He had her declared MENTALLY INCOMPETANT knowing she was too old and frail to fight him in Court. He pocketed the money that would have gone to his own daughter and 9 other grandchildren instead. WHAT A PRINCE
If my resources was Unlimited I'll beg Beach Grass for the licenses and make my own Starship fan place turbo fans instead of props then I'll pick up Star Trek copyrights and name mine's Voyager. a very nice plane indeed Beechcraft
"it just looks cool" Yes if Burt Rutann designed it more than anything it will look cool. The Long-EZ THe Virgin Galactic spaceship, its launch aircraft. , he could have just got some used up 707 from the boneyard added a little structure up top but that would have looked like POS so he built White Knight. cool and then some
Cool yes!, go composites! But looking cool goes out the window when it's costs and reliability are at opposites ends. Also when it's competitors could do so much more 1/3rd less money. The most remarkable aspect of this project was that after seeing the the 85% scale aircraft fell short in so many ways, that then CEO Linden Blue forked out almost 250 million dollars on the promise from Rutan that the (I'm paraphrasing) " the full size one will work!" Like the "design work" that caused the Voyager to scrape its own winglets off on departure, the Starship was miscalculated. Which is fine when you are working from an old hanger in the desert. The problem for Beech is that they bought into the idea that the starship's cool looks would be a selling point. Beech had to purchase the worlds largest autoclaves for composites and all the new tooling and manufacturing rethink. 5 years late and 100% over budget they would had to sell the con job for 5.5 million to make a profit for a small, under performing turbo prop.
Burt Rutan's biggest fan is Burt Rutan, next are people who buy into the looks. The results however were unspectacular, unable to even exceed those of the King Air : Fewer seats, less headroom, lower speed, oh and -> 2:20 It's range was about that of a King Air and so... what would be your choice now? The tail wagged the dog on this one and how Rutan got away with designing a bigger version of his previous aircraft, coming up short everywhere it mattered but gaining fans is inexplicable.
Imagine being part of AOPA and actually thinking those are Canards ... They are called flying wings and they articulate forward when you drop the flaps as well as they have elevators on them that move with the ones in the rear . Should do your research before publishing false information . :) you're welcome
I have never seen one, BUT each time I see one here on YT, NOBODY EVER HEAR ITS ENINE SOUND, BUT I know what a PIAGIO AVENTI2 SOUNDS LIKE+ I got a ride in one !🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
We have one of them still flying here in Kyiv, Ukraine. You can see the detailed review, turn on the captions to see the translation: th-cam.com/video/oabcIc3_KH8/w-d-xo.html
The Starship would have solded great if it had sold for the price of a Kingair. They made it more complicated and expensive than it has to be. Throw away the swing canard and flap system, dump the expensive (for its day) glass cockpit, use glass rather than carbon fiber with aluminum where it made sense and it would have sold for the price of the Kingair. The airframe could also have been offered with BOTH PT6 turboprop power for economy and CF34 turbofan power for speed. But, it all came to naught because Beech put all the efforts and money into advances where IT DIDN'T MATTER.
I started my aerospace career at Beechcraft in 1981. I had the distinguished (but not so pleasant) honor of losing my job as a result of the Starship program. I was working on the single engine 38P Lightning flight test program at the time and when they decided to move forward with the Starship the 38P program was canceled and its funds were redirected to the Starship program. But, before I was released, I had the distinct (and fun) privilege to have flown the Starship on a couple of occasions. It is a great airplane. I still have a rare photo taken at the start of the flight test program of the three prototype aircraft in formation in test area Boot Hill One. I have since recently retired and my 45 year aerospace career has come to an end. Seeing these videos and comments about the Starship brings me back to my beginnings and it feels pretty good.
How come that the world of aviation industry let this outstanding beauty live so short. I've always been a fan of Beechcraft airplanes, specially King Airs. But this..... this was way out (ahead) of its time. God bless this gentleman for keeping it alive.
I’m so happy to have someone that has the ability and love to keep these planes alive!
Lifetime Wichita resident here. Those were heady days back then for Beechcraft and Wichita. Starships were a regular sight around town. You knew exactly what was coming at the sound. I literally grew up flying in Wichita. Born in 55’ flew in a Tri Pacer at 16 months and grew with my father owning 4 different aircraft. Started with the Piper then 2 Mooney’s and ended back where he started with another Tri Pacer. Growing up around here you just can’t help but be a little bit of aviation geek.
After Walter and then Olive things were never the same. I worked in Olive’s home once and talk about memorabilia; photography and plaques, aviation doo dads of every stripe. Not sure what happed to it all but was enough to start your own museum. Pioneers they were 🇺🇸
If you're a Beechcraft ER you know the sound of that engine you don't even have to look up. But aren't these the same engines they put on the 1900s
Absolutely beautiful! I remember see one fly over my house in Maryland often. Usually around the same time. I knew it was the Starship because of the sound. I’d jump up, tell my wife it was flying over and run out to see it flyby. It was always the highlight of my day. Please don’t let this plane slip into obscurity.❤️
I seen one on occasion at Greater Kankakee Airport Illinois. Apparently, whoever owned it would make infrequent stops there. The sound it made during takeoff and climb out was awesome! Somewhat loud but refined and very smooth, the sound would make you look to see where it was coming from! I seen it a total of 4-6 times about 15 years ago! Quite a beautiful machine!
I’m just north of Chicago and I swear I saw it fly over tonight.
I was 17 and an exchange student in Wichita, Ks back in 1987/88 - where I by the way had a lovely stay.
Anyways, one day, I can't remember where or why, a handful of students and myself from other countries were told that we were going to visit a local business, but we could not share this with anyone but our hostparents. We were told it was in the city, but not anything else than no cameras allowed.
Turned out we ended up at Beechcraft, where they escorted us to what they said was their secret production area.
Now, if they said that to make the adventure even more adventurous to a bunch of kids, I don't know, but why not.
There we got to see one of these beautiful aircrafts. I had always been fascinated by planes and flight, so for me, a kid from an island in Norway, this was mindblowingly cool. To see the wings that far back with the tipsail(?) and the small wings towards the front up close and personal just boggled my sci-fi mind, and the interior was simply out of this world!
Still, I seem to remember there were jet engines..? I must be wrong.
Please correct my pleasant trip down memory lane if I am wrong here. After all, this was the era of Bon Jovi, Guns n' Roses, The Cult and Billy Idol so it's been a while. Still, they told us they hoped it would become a commercial success targeting both the private and public sector/market.
They had kept the plane a secret up to that point, but apparently were getting ready to present it to the public later that or the next year.
My dear host father was an engineer at Boeing - and almost tore his hear out when I told him where we had been. He had only heard rumors and seen it flying - and never up close.
Wouldn't be surpriced if he took me out for a milkshake and a chat that evening 😉👍
You were an exchange student to Wichita? Same! I loved it there.
@@savageman819 SouthEast High Golden Buff's baby! 😆👍 When and where were you there? I had a great time too, and have been back a couple of times to visit with my hostfamilies and for a reunion party at school.
@@OhNoNotFrank Oh for me that was from 2017-20 at a small private school. I'm still in the US rn, though not Kansas anymore.
@@savageman819 Enjoy!
This beautiful aircraft needs a resurgence and reintroduction.
Absolutely! There zero reason that it shouldn't be flying now that composites are common-place.
IMO Beechcraft was kind of rudderless when Olive Ann Beech died, and perhaps that had something to do with the problems in the Starship program. I used to watch these guys fly in. They were gorgeous, and the sound they made was gorgeous, too. I was very sad to hear that they were being bought back and scrapped. From an engineering and production operations perspective, there was indeed a huge clash between the Rutan "kitplane" composite layup mentality and the formed sheetmetal and rivets production-line at Beech. The company was an early adopter of CFRP composites on such a scale, and learned some very expensive lessons along the way. The costly "failure" of the Starship probably helped lead to the company's purchase by Raytheon. I worked for some time on the Premier program, which was originally meant to be the new Starship, without some of the mistakes. It obviously evolved quite a bit away from the Starship design, but we continued to learn a great deal from that effort and from the lessons of the larger Horizon program (which was a composite-bodied follow-on to the Hawker 850 & 1000, and which actually used the largest autoclaves available in the U.S. at that time). One key lesson-- outsourcing is generally far more expensive than doing it in-house. Another key lesson-- you don't design a composite structure in the same way as you would formed aluminum. In order to realize a benefit from the material switch you have to match your design choices to the strengths and weaknesses of that material, including both how it performs in operation and the processing and production requirements and limitations.
Thanks for sharing!👍👍👍
I thought the Starship was designed while Beech was owned by RTN. The Starship failure was one of the major reasons RTN dumped Beech.
@@PaulLascari Could be I got my order wrong. It just seemed likely because it was such a big cash drain. As for the why of RTN dumping Beech, it was well after the Starship had become a write-off. The Premier I jet, the ongoing costs associated with integrating the Hawker assets and personnel, and the launch of the new Hawker Horizon were big, too, and everything ran over budget, costing much more and taking much longer than "expected" and budgeted for. This ongoing, unplanned cash drain, combined with increasing competition on all levels, could not have been easy for RTN to swallow. During that time period, they took on Hughes Missiles & Defense, along with a giant load of debt. And they had ongoing issues with Rust Engineers and Constructors, which they couldn't even unload for some time because nobody really knew how big the associated liabilities with THAT company were. Once it was widely recognized that RTN was not the glowing success story at integrating its "new" subs, the giant mass of debt became more important (AND the stock dropped in value by ~85% within a few weeks). I think they were just trying to find a firm footing after that. It was also all part of a larger arc where they had earlier swung toward being a conglomerate, and were now swinging back toward being a "pure defense play". I haven't really kept up with their story since 2001, so there may be more interesting events worth considering (as a business case).
Just way a head of its time, beautiful airplane, wish there were more flying.............WOW !!!
They should bring it back , we’re ready now
This was the Delorean of the Aviation world.
A star ship indeed, gorgeous airplane.
I saw a starship pass high overhead as I was walking late one afternoon the airplane was following I-20 headed towards Columbia SC . I have no idea where its final destination was but the engine noise caught my attention as I walked across a bridge that spanned Interstate 20...How I wish I could have been aboard it a very cool design for an aircraft..
Saw one overhead leaving Greensboro a few weeks ago. I knew exactly what it was when I heard it. Very distinct sound, beautiful aircraft.
We had a Starship out here at Spirit of St. Louis Airport (KSUS) a month ago. I've seen it a number of times at Oshkosh. Very cool aircraft.
It’s nice to see these remaining aircraft still flying. Part of me hopes to never ever see one in a museum :)
Best looking plane to ever exist
Beautiful plane. Looks so cool
Yeah, it really is.
the DeLorean of private airplanes
One of my all-time favorite GA aircraft.
I remember when this aircraft came out as a teenager. Still love it.
Just heard then saw one fly into Centennial airport this morning. Been a fan since I heard/then saw it years ago. This morning was the closest I've been, as it flew directly overhead, heading into land.
Those claiming it was ahead of its time don't seem to realize that at its time the performance numbers, cost and complexity were not competitive in the sector it operates in. The design and composite construction are the only thing it has going for it, the plentiful shortcomings elsewhere, avionics, flight controls, performance and cost of ownership drove the market into a different direction. It nearly put the nail in the coffin for Beechcraft and ultimately it was even dropped from receiving support from Beechcraft despite them supporting other older designs with new parts still. With more modern technology and some design changes to actually achieve the requirements set out by its competitors the design could live on, but the development cost and fierce market competition are unlikely to make it resurface. The industry is going other directions and there is yet to be anyone willing to even so much as provide upgrades for it. You can't even get addon equipment for it, because the electrical system is so tightly spaced it would overheat or brownout the circuit. It really is a dead-end design in terms of the internals.
Saw this yesterday take off from Addison airport!
First time ever seeing one!
Awesome.
Never seen it in the air. Is it as super noisy as the P180 Avanti? I live a few miles North of KPIE and had to put up with those noisy birds for a few years as it was the US training center. Still hear one occasionally.
Beautiful airplane.
I've been dreaming about seeing up close and touching a Starship for the last 30 years! I save all the pictures I can get of this plane.
I used to see one parked at Aspen (ASE) all the time. Unfortunately I've never seen it flown, just on the ground.
These are the type of planes designed to cause ufo reportings, lol
One of them in Ukraine also flight
I swear I saw one of these flying into Hamilton / Butler County (Ohio) airport yesterday 4/2/23. Literally flew right over my house in Hamilton. I don't think it was any other lookalike and I don't think there are any replicas being built. Just curious why it came to Hamilton.
Beech missed the market more than once and the Starship was one of the casualties.
Saw one of these flying into Austin Executive Airport last night.... Didn't know what it was so I had to look it up. Wonder if it was Raj.
Looking at this compared with the Italian Avanti, This American version wins hands down. The Avanti may be a 7 but the starship is a 10. Rutan strikes again
Very pretty plane. Anxious to see it returned to its rightful owner. 😀
What was that strange noise at 2:57?
He farted
Michael Meredith that was the noise?
The future as past but still looks revolutionary. So sad.
Are the interiors on the beach
I saw one fly over today. It was the first one I had seen in at least 20 years.
Love it! Thanks for showing the wires and parts... epic post
If I could I would buy one. With today's technology this aircraft would rule
I am a member of the QAM and wish to gain permission to use thus youtube video as a part of the starship display. How can this permission be granted?
I cant believe how beautiful this airplane is.
02:34 light year is a distance measure not time
I LOVE the Starship.
I saw this at an airport at Davenport, Iowa several years.
I helped building the first parts for this!
toddjlyons I was a beechcrafter in the late 70’s early 80’s just before they started this project. It was still Beech back then.
Textron should restart Starship production and make it a CHEAP. Just fix the Canard, get rid of the articulated flaps, drop in a simple Garmin G500 display and give it GE Catalyst engines or the Williams FJ33.
basically a garage kept stickshift 89 VW GTi
Avanti P180 and Evo have taken this design and ran with it!
Make it an "experimental" category and you can fly it forever.
I saw one of these cool aircraft flying over Telford England recently must have been the German based NC-25
its performance could be much better, what was the problem?
Before the Starship came along, the FAA had never certificated a composite airframe, so they were naturally very cautious when approached with the Starship design. In an effort to err on the safe side, the FAA essentially told Beech that although their design looked good on paper, the design would have to be significantly strengthened to receive certification. Beechcraft did so, adding significant additional structure to both the fuselage and wing. Of course, this added quite a bit of weight to the aircraft, so other components had to be beefed up as well, adding yet more weight and bumped it's weight into Type Rating required category as in the United States, a type rating is required to act as pilot in command (PIC) of any aircraft that exceeds 12,500 pounds maximum takeoff weight.
So the PIC of a Starship, who as originally planned could have had (as a BARE MINIMUM to fly) a Private Pilot Certificate(~US$10,000) with Multi-Engine Class(~US$7,000) and Complex, High-Performance and High Altitude(~US$2,000 each) Endorsements gives you a Cost of about US$30,000 for training. But the executive whom already had flown the King Air would have needed just a familiarization on the new glass cockpit.
With a Type Certificate requirement, the practical test standards (PTS) for issuance of a type rating essentially are the same as the airline transport pilot PTS, in terms of the required performance standards. So now your PIC needs, an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) Multi-Engine Certificate, which Means you need to match these Prerequisites:
*1500 hours of total time as a pilot to include:
**500 hours of cross-country flight time.
**100 hours of night flight time.
**50 hours of flight time in the class (single-engine or multi-engine) of airplane for the rating sought.
**75 hours of instrument flight time, in actual or simulated conditions of which 50 hours must be in airplane.
**250 hours of flight time as pilot in command, or as second in command performing the duties of pilot in command (under the supervision of the pilot in command), or any combination thereof, to include:
***100 hours of cross-country flight time; and
***25 hours of night flight time.
Which gives an approximate cost in the ~US$90,000 for ATP training THEN you have to do the FAA BE-2000 Type Rating which needs a SECOND type rated pilot with you to fly it and Finally you can get an FAA BE-2000S to fly as a solo PIC...
Plus With the Increase in Pilot certifications you had It entering a economic recession (1989), at a price comparable to a full blown Private jet (US$5,000,000), AND Raytheon, Beech's parent company, in a bid to attract people to order Starships, had the brilliant idea of offering free maintenance to buyers, which was done by Raytheon Aircraft Services (RAS) a separate company from Raytheon. When RAS facilities had slack periods in the early 90's, many of them found Starships on the ramp to work on. They would work on the Starships whether they needed it or not and many of these airplanes were still owned and operated by Raytheon as leased planes due to the high purchase price. Even if the Starship was owned by a private party, owners didn't care how big the invoice was because Raytheon was paying the tab. With nobody questioning the invoices, one can imagine the scale of the billings that took place. Raytheon Bean-counters would ask RAS to explain why the Starship fleet was so expensive to maintain. RAS would respond that the Starship was a very complex airplane that was difficult to work on. Raytheon accepted these claims and continued paying the maintenance bills. But in reality, the free maintenance program was a billing machine for RAS and nobody at Raytheon had the incentive to figure it out and end it. The free maintenance program resulted in record billings to Raytheon, souring management's view of the Starship and frightening prospective customers. Raytheon management bought the RAS line that the Starship was complex and difficult to work on, eventually putting the red ink to bed by killing Starship production at 53.
Some parts of my answer were stolen from Bob Scherer, owner of Starship 2000A NC-51. (www.bobscherer.com/Pages/Starship.htm)
This why I hate Corporate America. What was the point of buying back the 53 aircrafts and destroying/scrapping them? You sold them. Let the owners decide what to do with them. Damn CEOs.
J S Beech thought they would tarnish their reputation, also I think there was some warranty type deal and they worried maintaining them would be too costly. They acted in their best interest; big deal. Obviously they didn't succeed in buying them all back
Beach could not keep up with the warranty. You can't let an airplane fly if everything's not working and if it's under the manufacturer's control then there could be a lot of problems. I worked for Raytheon Aircraft during that time they were called back
This video is made for those who don’t know that delta wing props actually exist!
Can I rent it to fly around Australia..
The owner of Starship N514RS, Bob Scherer, SUED his 86-year-old MOTHER because she wanted to leave her small estate, which was 1/25th the size his, to her grandchildren because she had never set up a trust for their benefit, as was the case for spoiled son Bob, who enjoyed inheritance since the age of 21. He had her declared MENTALLY INCOMPETANT knowing she was too old and frail to fight him in Court. He pocketed the money that would have gone to his own daughter and 9 other grandchildren instead. WHAT A PRINCE
"Beautiful Bird"
Such a sexy aircraft.
shame on the FAA for regulating it out of existence
shame on beechcraft for destroying the majority of these planes
I built the left hand forward with freshman center on the beach
I just saw one tonight in Maryland mind blown lol
Why not to demonstrate it's sound ? The noise is enough high.
My name is Todd pitman and I built the left hand forward with freshman center on all of the beach
If my resources was Unlimited I'll beg Beach Grass for the licenses and make my own Starship fan place turbo fans instead of props then I'll pick up Star Trek copyrights and name mine's Voyager. a very nice plane indeed Beechcraft
"it just looks cool" Yes if Burt Rutann designed it more than anything it will look cool. The Long-EZ THe Virgin Galactic spaceship, its launch aircraft. , he could have just got some used up 707 from the boneyard added a little structure up top but that would have looked like POS so he built White Knight. cool and then some
Cool yes!, go composites! But looking cool goes out the window when it's costs and reliability are at opposites ends. Also when it's competitors could do so much more 1/3rd less money. The most remarkable aspect of this project was that after seeing the the 85% scale aircraft fell short in so many ways, that then CEO Linden Blue forked out almost 250 million dollars on the promise from Rutan that the (I'm paraphrasing) " the full size one will work!" Like the "design work" that caused the Voyager to scrape its own winglets off on departure, the Starship was miscalculated. Which is fine when you are working from an old hanger in the desert. The problem for Beech is that they bought into the idea that the starship's cool looks would be a selling point. Beech had to purchase the worlds largest autoclaves for composites and all the new tooling and manufacturing rethink. 5 years late and 100% over budget they would had to sell the con job for 5.5 million to make a profit for a small, under performing turbo prop.
I seen this aircraft before wired looking
Lawyers....killed another great idea.
Ups ... another "Zeitfresser"
P180 Avanti style.
Burt Rutan's biggest fan is Burt Rutan, next are people who buy into the looks. The results however were unspectacular, unable to even exceed those of the King Air : Fewer seats, less headroom, lower speed, oh and -> 2:20 It's range was about that of a King Air and so... what would be your choice now?
The tail wagged the dog on this one and how Rutan got away with designing a bigger version of his previous aircraft, coming up short everywhere it mattered but gaining fans is inexplicable.
i think the winglets need to be higher lol
M Do you see a rudder? That's why they're so big.
Imagine being part of AOPA and actually thinking those are Canards ... They are called flying wings and they articulate forward when you drop the flaps as well as they have elevators on them that move with the ones in the rear . Should do your research before publishing false information . :) you're welcome
I have never seen one, BUT each time I see one here on YT, NOBODY EVER HEAR ITS ENINE SOUND, BUT I know what a PIAGIO AVENTI2 SOUNDS LIKE+ I got a ride in one !🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
We have one of them still flying here in Kyiv, Ukraine. You can see the detailed review, turn on the captions to see the translation: th-cam.com/video/oabcIc3_KH8/w-d-xo.html
Mustache plane
2:56 Who farted?
This should be flown at airshows around the nation.
Boeing and their lobbyist stop this beauty
It's truly a crime what Beechcraft did with these beautiful machines. Burt Rutan is a genius.
The Starship would have solded great if it had sold for the price of a Kingair. They made it more complicated and expensive than it has to be. Throw away the swing canard and flap system, dump the expensive (for its day) glass cockpit, use glass rather than carbon fiber with aluminum where it made sense and it would have sold for the price of the Kingair. The airframe could also have been offered with BOTH PT6 turboprop power for economy and CF34 turbofan power for speed. But, it all came to naught because Beech put all the efforts and money into advances where IT DIDN'T MATTER.
Politicians killed this plane with exploitative taxation and "regulatory fees". Then Piaggio copied the design and profited with the Avanti...