The Beechcraft Starship - Curious.

[Monster Dave]

So after having seen an episode of Boneyard on History a few days ago, I found myself curious about the Beechcraft Starship. For those of you who don't know about it, it was the first fully composite aircraft built in the mid 80's in a joint venture with Raytheon and Beechcraft. It was also the first aircraft to have what is now refered to as a fully "glass cockpit" rather than traditional dials and instrumentation. 



Anyway, I know that this particular episode aired in 2000, so I decided to see if I could really "see" if any of these aircraft were still intact today. In the late 90's Raytheon bought all but 6 of the 50 built back to be decomissioned. Today, only 4 in the world are operational.

Living in Arizona has some unique benefits, one of them being that the worlds largest aircraft "boneyards" are located here. So I decided to bring up good old Google Earth and see if I could find the remaining decommissioned aircraft. Sure enough, I found them, and they are still basking in the sun awaiting their eventual demise with a shredder:



What's really sad about these aircraft aside from being considered one of the most beautiful and unique aircraft ever built, it also was built almost entirely out of carbon fiber composite. So it can't be recycled and will sadly have to be shredded.

I always find unique aircraft like these interesting and it's amazing how many different aircraft they have and the purposes that they have sitting out there - refurbish, decommission, reuse...it's amazing. From passenger to military. They have 4400 aircraft in storage out here in the desert.

Anyway, I was just curious and thought this might interest some of you too! 

[spolic]

I hated every minute of that Boneyard show.  It was like watching someone desecrate a human body. 

[Monster Dave]

It's funny though, we have more aircraft in the ready/on stand by, than most countries entire military!

[zarn02]

Think if I bring my own trailer they'll let me have one or two?

[mitt]

I wonder why they didn't succeed as a design?

mitt

[zarn02]

I wonder why they didn't succeed as a design?

mitt

From Wikipedia:

Commercially, the aircraft was a failure, with limited demand at list price. Only fifty-three Starships were ever built, and of those only a handful were sold. Many of the aircraft were eventually leased by Raytheon under very attractive terms. Raytheon considered the cost of supporting a commercial fleet of just 53 aircraft with necessary parts and flight training to be prohibitive. With the decision already made to cease production, Raytheon's management made the decision to de-certify those Starships in their possession. The airframes were either donated for static display or dismantled at Pinal Airpark.

Some reasons for the lack of demand:

    * Price. 1989 list price for a Starship was $3.9 million, similar to the Cessna Citation and Learjet 31, which were pure jets of similar carrying capacity and range. The Piper Cheyenne, a turboprop airplane of similar capacity, was less expensive ($2.9 million).[2]
    * Performance. The Starship was 89 knots (165 km/h) slower than the Cessna Citation. It was 124 knots (230 km/h) slower than the Learjet 31. The turboprop-powered Piper Cheyenne was also faster than the Starship. The turboprop-powered Italian Piaggio P.180 Avanti had a configuration somewhat similar to the Starship (it incorporated a canard as well as a conventional tailplane) and comparable capacity, but was faster.
    * Economic conditions. The Starship was finally introduced as the US economy was entering a periodic slowdown, and sales of all high-ticket items such as business transportation vehicles were off.

[Monster Dave]

That does a fine job a pointing out the bad things from a very nondescript point of view to say nothing of the fact that costs ran high because the FAA had never had to certify a completely composite based aircraft and it took nearly 5 years to make all of the modifications that the FAA deemed necessary prior to rollout.

Not to disagree entirely with Wiki. Cost was a huge factor as was performance. The whole situation though reminds me a little of the Tucker Torpedo.

[zarn02]

That does a fine job a pointing out the bad things from a very nondescript point of view to say nothing of the fact that costs ran high because the FAA had never had to certify a completely composite based aircraft and it took nearly 5 years to make all of the modifications that the FAA deemed necessary prior to rollout.

Not to disagree entirely with Wiki. Cost was a huge factor as was performance. The whole situation though reminds me a little of the Tucker Torpedo.

Good points, and fair enough. I went to wiki because I too had no idea.

[Monster Dave]

call me a conspiracy theorist, but it almost seems like the FAA stalled (lol) so long that the project burned itself out. Sabotaged.

[zarn02]

call me a conspiracy theorist, but it almost seems like the FAA stalled (lol) so long that the project burned itself out. Sabotaged.

*groans*

Very punny...

From what I understand, the Feds aren't really excited about innovation. It messes with their bureaucracy.

My dad owns an old single-engine plane (An Ercoupe, for anyone interested) and serves on a county airport board, so I get to hear about the various ridiculous things the FAA does and demands.

Did you know, you can't put modern dry-cell batteries in old aircraft, due to regulations? Modernization work would require you to reclassify your airplane as 'experimental'.

Anyway, I wouldn't jump on the "conspiracy" bandwagon yet, but I would say that federal bureaucracy did what it could to kill the Starcraft.

[Airborne]

The Piaggio Avanti is pretty similar to the starship, theres one that operates occasionally at the airport which I fly out of. Very neat to see fly.

[Speeddog]

The Piaggio Avanti is pretty similar to the starship, theres one that operates occasionally at the airport which I fly out of. Very neat to see fly.
~~~snip~~~

I see one of those at Camarillo occasionally.

[superjohn]

call me a conspiracy theorist, but it almost seems like the FAA stalled (lol) so long that the project burned itself out. Sabotaged.

Of course, since the plane never gained widespread acceptance and Raytheon bought them all back, we can't be sure it wasn't a ginormous piece of shit in a pretty wrapper either.

I would say that with the price point and performance most corporate clients would go with the more conventional aircraft like a Citation.

[Popeye the Sailor]

I heard the reviews were all negative because they tried to launch it from a giant conveyor, and it never took off. 

[Triple J]

I heard the reviews were all negative because they tried to launch it from a giant conveyor, and it never took off. 

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