What kind of airport is this?

ActiveTrader7

ActiveTrader7

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I was looking at different airports on Google Earth and I've come across this weird looking aircraft a couple times. Can anyone identify it from my poor drawing?


mysteryplane.jpg
 
Yep, that's the AIRCRAFT I've seen. pretty cool looking! I guess its nothing special since there are only 5! What are the chances I've seen two of them at separate airports on Google Earth?


I remembered where one of them is, Aspen, CO.

nc-51.jpg
 
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ActiveTrader7 said:
Yep, that's the AIRCRAFT I've seen. pretty cool looking! I guess its nothing special since there are only 5! What are the chances I've seen two of them at separate airports on Google Earth?
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Yup, that is a Starship. IIRC, there were only 23 ever made. Beech tried to buy them all back but a few refused to sell.

BTW, the AIRPORT comment was aimed at the title of your thread. :rofl:
 
I first saw N514RS when I was in the cab of the new twr being built at KSBA. He is the guy who has several Starship airframes and spare engines for parts replacements.
 
ActiveTrader7 said:
bored, there has to be about 5 billion dollars worth of aircraft sitting at the Aspen Airport.
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LOL I guarantee there's a lot more in real estate held by many of those who own the planes.

An area I'm more familiar with is Jackson Hole, WY. When I lived there in 1988, an undeveloped, quarter-acre lot would sell for $250,000. Imagine what it would be twenty years later?

I just got curious so I looked up some property in Jackson currently for sale. I found a lot, undeveloped... .09 acre. Asking price: $505,000

But, if you insist on closer to a full acre, here's one... .86 acre for a cool $4,000,000

:hairraise:

/Thread drift

:)
 
I saw this land, drop off a couple passengers and takeoff at CYZU in October 2006. Thought it might be the Beech but it is definitely a Piaggio. It was sharp.

Piaggio-Table.jpg
 
Also check out AVQ. There were six Starships (in non-flyable condition) there last time I was there. They were previously located at MZJ.
 
2 of the 5 starships are based in Oklahoma...at least that's what one of the pilots told me when I ran into this beauty.

Most starship owners own at least an extra airframe. I think it's one of the saddest stories in aviation history. What a sexy airplane!
 

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ActiveTrader7 said:
I was looking at different airports on Google Earth and I've come across this weird looking aircraft a couple times. Can anyone identify it from my poor drawing?


mysteryplane.jpg
Click to expand...

Well, if it's still on an airport, it's probably a Piaggio Avanti, there is a chance it's a Beech Starship, though I'm not sure any are still flying. Beech bought them all back IIRC, but story has it, a few people refused to give them back. I don't know if there are any still airworthy.
 
Think of what it must have cost Beech to develop and certify that airplane, and end up being a total loss. What a shame!
 
bsdunek said:
Think of what it must have cost Beech to develop and certify that airplane, and end up being a total loss. What a shame!
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Well, not totally. I believe they learned a lot with that program and applied it to other projects.
 
bsdunek said:
Think of what it must have cost Beech to develop and certify that airplane, and end up being a total loss. What a shame!
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Not even, it was a proof of concept model, kinda like the Chrysler Predator with it's aluminium chassis. They used it to learn from and have since parlayed that that knowledge and testing into multiple billions of dollars of government contracts. The losers were the buyers.
 
Henning said:
Well, if it's still on an airport, it's probably a Piaggio Avanti, there is a chance it's a Beech Starship, though I'm not sure any are still flying. Beech bought them all back IIRC, but story has it, a few people refused to give them back. I don't know if there are any still airworthy.
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There's at least a handfull that are still airworthy. Scaled Composites uses one as a chase ship. There was one that flew in at AirVenture '05. Every time I'm home (Wichita, KS) it seems like I see one or two out flying. There are a few private owners who refused to sell them back to Beech/Raytheon, and even went so far as to buy up as many spare parts as they could warehouse to keep them flying.
 
Interesting that you mention Scaled Composites - The Starship is actually a Burt Rutan design that Beechcraft built. IIRC - The reason that they bought them all back was due to all of the liability law suits that resulted after several crashes.
 
t0r0nad0 said:
Interesting that you mention Scaled Composites - The Starship is actually a Burt Rutan design that Beechcraft built. IIRC - The reason that they bought them all back was due to all of the liability law suits that resulted after several crashes.
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PJ, I am not aware of any Starships involved in accidents; Beech (actually, Raytheon) decided to withdraw it from the market because it simply never sold well and those which did sell were sold at a considerable loss, and Raytheon did not care to continue product and parts support for so small a delivered base.

Beech has bought back most of them, but there are survivors, yet.

See this list: http://www.bobscherer.com/Files/Starship/STARSHIP-PRO.pdf
 
SCCutler said:
PJ, I am not aware of any Starships involved in accidents; Beech (actually, Raytheon) decided to withdraw it from the market because it simply never sold well and those which did sell were sold at a considerable loss, and Raytheon did not care to continue product and parts support for so small a delivered base.

Beech has bought back most of them, but there are survivors, yet.

See this list: http://www.bobscherer.com/Files/Starship/STARSHIP-PRO.pdf
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That's what I had heard as they reason they bought them back. You're right though, it was in large part a Rutan design for (then) Beechcraft.
 
I werked for Beech at the time the Starship was being developed. Went to the factory in in '88 for King Air training, and got a tour of the factory at the time. They had 3/4 scale Starships flying doing test flying. Beech was not really interested in making money off the Starship, they were more interested in the composite technology. Beech spent around 300 mil. on the project and reaped 700 mil. worth of the gov't. contracts for the technology they developed. The tour of the factory was quite an interest experience. Got to see the full size Starship manufacturing process along with the assembly lines of the Bonanza and the King Air. Even got a personalized copy of the limited "Fifty Years of Excellence... The History of Beechcraft" autographed by the then President of Beech Max Bleck.
 
 
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Noah Werka said:
I werked for Beech at the time the Starship was being developed. Went to the factory in in '88 for King Air training, and got a tour of the factory at the time. They had 3/4 scale Starships flying doing test flying. Beech was not really interested in making money off the Starship, they were more interested in the composite technology. Beech spent around 300 mil. on the project and reaped 700 mil. worth of the gov't. contracts for the technology they developed. The tour of the factory was quite an interest experience. Got to see the full size Starship manufacturing process along with the assembly lines of the Bonanza and the King Air. Even got a personalized copy of the limited "Fifty Years of Excellence... The History of Beechcraft" autographed by the then President of Beech Max Bleck.
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Exactly, they were test sleds that they put into consumers hands to flog data out of and make improvements on as weaknesses come to light, and do it on someone elses dime. This is nothing new, car manufacturers do it as well, the Fiero was the proof of concept test sled for the entire Saturn line, we have yet to find what Chrysler is going to do with the data collected from the Prowler. I have been given new boat hull and powerplant configuration to take out and work. You can do all the in house testing you want on a few test units, but until you put that design out there into the hands of consumers and end users, you won't know nearly all you need. Beech knew they would lose on the Starship, but they didn't lose nearly what they would have collecting all that data on their own. Once they had the data they needed, they tried to buy them all back to limit their liability exposure (as I have said here before, composite engineering is an inexact discipline, and at that time, even more so, and fatigue values are still largely unkown), not because they didn't want to support them. I never got to fly a Starship, but I have been aboard one and talked to its owner and pilots, and from what they said, I doubt I would give it up either.
 
t0r0nad0 said:
Interesting that you mention Scaled Composites - The Starship is actually a Burt Rutan design that Beechcraft built.....
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SUUUURRREEE it is. Burt himself refused to deny the allegation that when he was in the Air Force he had access to the secret alien technology they keep locked up at Area 51.

As I recall after he said that at Oshkosh, he put on some sunglasses and held up this little flashy flashlight thing but I was looking down at the time. :D
 
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