Smokeyforgothispassword Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 I’m not sure if anyone will be interested in this, but I just discovered that my local aviation museum has a Starship! Queensland Aviation Museum Beechcraft Starship Landrotten Highlander, LSP_Matt, Out2gtcha and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seiran01 Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Good! Bloody gorgeous plane, I’d really love a model of one!! There’s one at the Evergreen museum in Oregon as well, and at least as of a year ago there’s one based at LAX that I sometimes see flying into DC. Uncarina and RadBaron 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winnie Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 I ferried a helicopter from Torrance, Calif, to London, Ontario one year, 2008 or 9 i believe, and on the first day we stopped overnight in Marana (KAVQ) in Arizona. on approach in there i saw I believe 7 Beech Starship parked. First and only time I ever did see them. As a kid I was obsessed with it, and had all the Flying Magazine articles on it saved. Such a beautiful machine, incredibly sad it was cancelled. If you go on google maps perhaps they are still there? they were parked on the apron between runway thresholds for 30 and 21. Uncarina 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winnie Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Just to add, if you go to these coords on Google maps/Sattelite view you can see 4 of them. also a Neptune and some A-4's and some 4 engine piston jobbies. Real cool! The Starships are not in the same position I saw them in. Unfortunately I lost my pictures in a hard drive fiasco... Marana Arizona 85653, USA 32.411673, -111.224550 Uncarina 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Neat! I love the SS. On our tour of PIMA back during the 2018 US IPMS Nats, I discovered they had one there too, and took all sorts of close ups of it, as it was 110f out, but still got to get super close to it......just couldn't touch it or get burnt! Winnie, Lothar, Dragon and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juggernut Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 I was at Beechcraft in the late 80's and got to see them building these aircraft. Huge sections of the aircraft were cured in an autoclave (it's mostly composite if I remember correctly) and also watched the water saws cutting out parts for it. Uncarina and Out2gtcha 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 (edited) I "worked" with both the Starship and its counterpart the Piaggio P180 Avanti in ATC, and never understood why the Starship vanished from the GA scene...... and ....after googling the facts, i found out........it's a sad story..... Edited October 23, 2020 by Jack PhilB and Out2gtcha 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilB Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 I was out on the airfield at Heathrow one day and an Avanti landed and taxied right past me. Looked like something from way in the future and I fell in love instantly. Never saw a Starship which was a shame as I find the designs of both these aircraft pretty amazing. Jack and Out2gtcha 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunpowder Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 Theres an Avanti that takes off , flies over our little town round in a loop and goes back. It sounds like nothing else , kind of like a Stuka siren! Both great looking planes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldbaldguy Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 Huge corporate hate surrounding Rutan, Beechcraft and this airplane. Another case of marketeers and bean counters passing all the blame on to the guy who did his best to design and build something great. Landrotten Highlander 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Brown Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 I read somewhere that Beechcraft more than made up for the money they lost on the Starship program by applying what they learned working with composites. It’s a beautiful airplane. I had the chance to get a little stick time in one. It had a different “feel” from the King Air 200 I was flying at the time. The Avanti is also a really cool airplane. It has a distinctive howl when it flies over. I’d hear one pretty regularly back before the pandemic. Ben Jack 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Matt Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 On 10/23/2020 at 4:43 PM, Smokeyforgothispassword said: I’m not sure if anyone will be interested in this, but I just discovered that my local aviation museum has a Starship! Queensland Aviation Museum Beechcraft Starship They have a great collection. I'd have to check my stash of old photos but I think I have one of that Starship at a Mangalore airshow. In the mid 90's I think. They even had a MiG21 at that airshow. Cheers Matty PhilB and Smokeyforgothispassword 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilB Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Found a good pilot's walkaround of the Avanti II. Very fast, low operating costs but very expensive to buy. But Piaggio was rescued by Ferrari so not surprising. Out2gtcha and Uncarina 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadBaron Posted October 27, 2020 Share Posted October 27, 2020 We had one drop in for an overnight stay a month or so ago. The entire airport stopped to watch it land. It was a victim of its own success. Since it was the first of its type, the FAA didn't know how certify it. Rutan/beechcraft were told to add extra structure to the aicraft, which pushed its weight up, which then caused all the associated trickle down issues, which ended in making it completely uncompetitive in the market. A really pity Almost 40 years old and she still looks like the future. And finally, Yours Truly, getting in the way as always... Jack, Winnie, Uncarina and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted October 27, 2020 Share Posted October 27, 2020 Noice! Such a pity we dont and wont see more around RadBaron 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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