The History of the Beechcraft Starship
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- čas přidán 13. 11. 2020
- Hello! :D
One of the more obscure aviation designs, the Beechcraft Starship was an aircraft that could have only come out of the 1980s, an attempt by the American light aircraft and turboprop builder to create a lighweight executive transport with a fuselage made entirely out of carbon fibre composites.
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References:
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- Wikipedia (and its respective references) - Auta a dopravní prostředky
I mean, you could do a whole episode on Burt Rutan, last of the great one man design teams, maybe he didn't break as many records as Geoffrey De Havilland but he was active in the shadow of million dollar design teams and still managed to innovate.
That might be one to consider for the future :)
@@rorymacve really interesting guy, he lives in a solar powered desert mansion and drives an electric car yet he's a climate change sceptic with the world's most impressive sideburns who also happened to win the $10mil x-prize.
@@zopEnglandzip He had to get rid of the original GM first generation car years ago. believe he is a tesla guy now
One of my favorite general aviation designs.
Agreed, I first saw it back in the 1990s in the flight simulator Flight Unlimited 2, and since then I've always been fascinated by it. :)
Maintenance pigs.
@@rorymacve Yay Flight Unlimited 2, my childhood.
A lot of the weight was a requirement of the FAA as they were afraid of Composites and required an Overbuild of the plane. One crashed in Denmark and everyone walked away when the ship absorbed the crash forces.
It crashed bacause if icing
NC51 is based at Aspen-Pitkin Airport in Aspen, Colorado and can be easily seen parked from the nearby road. I've had the fortune of seeing it a few months ago there and it is absolutely distinctive. The owner Robert Scherer bought many surplus Starship parts in the early 2000s and helps provides parts for the remaining aircraft still flying today!
So sad to see this majestic thing not being successful.
One of these used to fly in to Nashville regularly about 1994-1997. I lived near the airport and saw it often. One day I went & asked and the owner was nice enough to give me a tour.
I think the Starship achieved quite a bit more than you credit it for. Yes, no question it was an absolute commercial failure - but it taught the industry what it needed to know in order to make, service, and repair commercial composite aircraft on a large scale, enabling aircraft like the 787 and A350.... I doubt without the industrial experience of the Starship, we'd have the 787 or A350 in their current form today.
Srarship broke a lot of aviation ground, commercial success wasn't in the cards for many reasons. But Like you mentioned, the industry made leaps because of this design.
There is still an operator of a Starship in the Miami Florida area.
Every other month or so, I am guided by the unusual but interesting sounds of the pusher props as they climb overhead. It's so gratifying to hear and see something other than the same, boring designs and lackluster sounds of today's aviation environment.
I just love to hear, then see something other than a A320 or B777. Especially when this area was known for DC 7's, Lear 25's B727's and on and on...
You obviously can tell that I don't have much to look at until I hear one of those few Starships. Thanks.
And he delivers again, fantastic video as always
Thank you very kindly ! :D
I’d second that! There’s so much that has happened in the world.
When I was living in Las Vegas at the end of the 90s, I remember one of these flying in and out of McCarren International on a constant basis. It was so distinctive from below that it was impossible to miss.
Incredible aircraft. Amazingly Polish Medical Air Rescue uses P.180 Avanti that looks just like this one.
There are some significant differences - Piaggio overcame the speed issues by shrinking the wings and reducing drag, with the fuselage generating significant lift.
With the right livery, I think the starship might even look better
Surprised someone hasn't stripped out the heavy avionics and installed a modern lightweight Garmin suite if it made that much difference to the top speed.
If it was just that, it would have been done years ago. Most of the weight gain had to do with strict FAA requirements back then, incapable of understanding new composite technology. Also Beechcraft themselves lacked the know how to develop it at the right budget, making costly mistakes on the way as they were addressing uncharted territories in engineering and manufacturing. In a few words, they were beyond their depth. But unlike the Apollo program (also addressing uncharted territories) they did not have unlimited funding and Human Resources in order to learn from those errors breakthrough those hurdles and come on the otherwise with a revolutionise and successful product.
A beautiful... airplane.. a spaceship design ahead of its time....it may come back s0meday....thank you Burt Rutan!!!!
Great video on perhaps the sexiest GA second to the Piaggio Avanti
It was a real pity that Starship had to close. It was a tremendously beautiful airplane and it was very impressive to see it fly like the Concord. It was an example of a very nice airplane that became history.
I have a buddy that in the 90's flew right seat in a Starship owened by the Orlando Florida based beer distributor Wayne Densch, my friend said that while the Starship had its issues it was a pleasure to fly and he loved flying it.
Having been one of the lucky few to get some hours in one, I must say this is one fantastic aircraft. The only thing that really held it back was lack of RVSM imho. The biggest kick in the teeth for the remaining aircraft is the lack of engineering support, as per about 15 years ago (approx). Shut down at any airport, within a couple minutes you'd have several people asking can we have a look? how did you get to fly this? etc...
This airframe's biggest failure was it was so far ahead of its time.. everything that made the Starship unique took 20 years to catch up. The entire avionics could be done with 6 touch screens today . The carbon fiber composite construction being vindicated with the 787 and canard on the griffon/ eurofighter.. I disagree with your conclusions because beechcraft is in record for saying the starship was more of a proof of concept project that tried to make money ..
I saw this aircraft fly over my house everyday for years . I could hear it and always knew it was coming .Henderson exec, to either McCarran , or north Las Vegas . They flew these out in Las Vegas until the piaggio replaced it . I loved this aircraft so much as a kid . So sad to see the one at Pima just rotting away .
Quality content as ever. Thanks so much.
There’s a Starship that flies out of KSJC. It has a very distinct sound and flies over my house due to the fact that my house is under the departure route.
Very well researched and concisely written and narrated. Great job. Thanks
What a gorgeous plane!
This plane was so quintessentially Eighties that it was originally intended to be called the Jefferson Airplane...
(Not sure how many viewers are old enough to get that joke...)
I get it!
Get the joke ! I bought the album.
BAHAHAHAAH!!!
I don’t get it 😭 I was born in 1998
Well, this aircraft had GRACE, and it was very SLICK!
One of the most beautiful planes ever built
My father built a Long EZ in our garage in 1982, which is the little brother of the Starship. He kept it at Addison airport in North Dallas. I have an old photo of his plane next to a one of the remaining Starships.
Best friend built Long ez over powered over proper .hard to land as it would fly at above stall speed at 0 throttle
This plane looks fantastic, I tried to search for its history once seeing it.
That's too bad, I really like the design of the Beechcraft Starship. Nice work MacVeigh.
One of those ideas, concepts, that was ahead of its time. Well ahead of its composite components time. You could definitely build these today, stronger, lighter, more powerful and with better avionics. Very likely cheaper too although it wouldn't be if you take inflation into consideration.
Great vid, can you make one on the Piaggio??
That one was relatively successful
Great video, very informative and interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Great video as usual. Not sure why is has less views than the following princess one; this is a super interesting piece of aviation history.
Great video as always mate! 👌👍💪💯
Were I live in NJ, there is a lot of air traffic over head from Newark Airport but mostly from Morristown Airport. I used to see a starship flying over on a regular basis up to about a couple years ago. My house is in line with one of their runways. I love aircraft and always look to see what kind of planes are flying over especially when they sound unusual. The starship definitely had its own sound which I got to know, so I could tell whenever it flew over. This is well after they were supposed to have been bought back by Beech.
The most beautiful aircraft Beechcraft ever made.
Always very informative and interesting, love your videos. Great work. Thanks from Scandinavia.
Thank you very much! :D
Cute and ahead of it's time!
They can't all be successes.
This makes me want to learn to fly.
A really beautiful aircraft,but far far ahead of it's time.A real shame.Good to see six still flying,and eight preserved.
Top presentation😎👍❤!
First time I saw one was on 'Air Wolf' loved it ever since.
Your aviation videos are the best!
I would think the Beech 18 or Bonanza would the iconic Beechcraft types.
Excellent video sir 👍
I was lucky enough to have a demo flight on a Starship out of Santa Monica Airport. Will never forget how cool the plane was and how quickly we got up to Santa Barbara. The cabin was louder than I expected though despite the engines being out back. Too bad that it was so full of compromises that it wasn't successful because if the Starship had succeeded, I think we'd definitely be flying more planes shaped like this today!
SO COOL looking!
I love working the starship I’ve seen two of four in the world! One of the coolest planes Ive ever see.
I painted all of them 2 to 53 with Jeff Banks . Worked we Worked ourselves Hard. RIP Mr. Charlie Wade.
I worked at Pinal Air Park when the Starships were flown in. It was amazing to see them all parked on the ramp and in the overflow lots behind the Doole hanger. A few survived to be flown out again to museums but most were chopped up...it was very sad to see. 😞
Robert Scherer of Aspen, Colorado owns one of three remaining airworthy examples and bought several carefully disassembled airframes and associated parts to keep his aircraft flying.
I have to wonder if one could update the design using today's technology and make a better go at it? Such a nice looking aircraft that it's a pity it wasn't more successful. That said, the Avanti is damn sexy too.
I drive by one of the ones in Oklahoma all the time. There used to be a bunch of other weird planes next to it until a tornado came through.
I believe I saw one of these a few days ago flying overhead twice. Once headed NE then circling back to the Fort Smith airport. Such an odd looking plane to see overhead considering all I ever see are conventional prop and jet planes.
A _BEAUTIFUL_ aircraft.
Also, I just thought of this, you should look into getting on Nebula (the curiosity stream video platform). Your videos are definitely of the type and quality that people would pay for over there.
The Queensland town of Caloundra is pronounced so the second syllable is prounounced the same as in "lounge", not like in "toon".
This model has "Burt Rutan" in font size 1400 bold typeface written all over it.
Great vlog as always. The prize of doing something totaly new is very high sometimes.
I used to see the starship coming in to land at Love Field in Dallas, it must have been the Addison one. It was distinctive not only in appearance but in its sound. It was loud and different from most aircraft and you knew when you heard that sound you needed to look up.
Best looking plane ever built
I got lucky seeing one land at John Wayne Airport when I was working.
I lived in Wichita Ks. I remember the test flights and engine tests as a kid.
I love the Cheyenne 400LS (the one mentioned in the video) but fewer of those were produced than of the Starship. I thought of buying one but was afraid of parts availability.
wish they had kept it going.
I got to see one back in 2015 at Airventure, not sure which one it was but it had blue stripes if I recall correctly.
I remember...damn I'm old.
Great content as always! Although at 2:50 I believe you may have intended to say 900 pounds weight rather than 900 pounds worth?
I guess the Piaggio P.180 Avanti is a very similar air plane that has been a success with about 275 built mined it has gone through growing also.
They’re not really similar, Avanti is a traditional Aluminium airframe design, and the aerodynamics are pretty different too
I used to drive by the Marana/Pinal airpark and would see them lined up on the tarmac in the back and looked like they were being picked apart. One day they were just gone, probably cut up and crushed?
I wonder what weight saving would have been made once CRT technology had been superseded?
As a rule of thumb the percentage speed increase would be equal to half the percentage weight decrease if all other things are kept equal.
I like the look of the Starship. Beech produced another big failure the Hacker Horizon around the same time frame. They should have concentrated on one new aircraft model at a time to provide proper financial support for each program.
OK, pause the video. Of the three initial Aircraft designs you mentioned, the beach 18, Bonanza and Baron, I would say the Baron is the least well-known. Not the best well-known. Ok, continue video.
And after you started again, he mentioned the King Air, which is also better known than the Baron.
Glad many still exist.
Just five flying as of Jan 2023
The Starship had cut too many corners to be a success. In contrast the turbo prop Piaggio EVO flies as fast or faster than some light jets. Its aerodynamic fuselage reduces drag and fuel consumption while giving the plane a ceiling 410FL and range about 1800 miles. The Piaggio is the plane that the Beechcraft Starship wished to be.
So it is registered in DE(laware) but is physically in DE(utschland)? Fun coincidence :P
Thats funny, Rutan was a designer at Scaled ! More like founder and owner at Scaled, also designed VariEZ and Long-EZ and the other plane Voyager !
Defiant... Solitaire....Catbird....Quiver..... Proteus....Aires....Strattolaunch.....ect...
Burt's backwards airplanes remind me of vertical-axis wind turbines, Nerds love them, always citing the standard list of impressive-sounding yet invalid "advantages", but meanwhile, if you want the simple, cheapest, most reliable design, you are using regular "propeller-style" wind turbines. Seems like with all the aviation innovators from the Wrights onward, the urge to put the tail in front turned out to be not as good as just copying birds, locating the tail at the rear. (tail at the rear - who knew?) Having said that, I guess quite a few of Rutan's Vari-Eze and Long-Eze airplane designs are still out there flying, (not John Denver's though) with a lot of remaining die-hard fans.
Still a pretty face sparks some emotions that no tech spec ever will
I always get this confused with the Jefferson Starship.
you know heads had to roll after that debacle...you can only imagine the finger pointing that went on
But...... beautiful.
🖖
I had NO idea these were so slow... no wonder they weren't hot sellers
So the plane was a mistake and there were many planes so.............they are
STARSHIP BLOOPERS !!!!
Sorry, I couldn't resist. Was an interesting video though. :)
It's been a VOYAGE(r) of DISCOVERY thanks to your ENTERPRISE .
Yes, but, even now, they soldier on. That makes them...
Starship Troopers.
Thank you. I'll show myself out.
Max speed of 537 mph was just exaggerated pie in the sky
I live in San Antonio, there is one that flies in here every so often...noisy
Rutan Field now on the maps
So too bad this concept did not take off, pun intended. The plane is so interesting. I think it's beautiful in flight.
Of every aircraft ever built by human beings from the Write brothers to the new rockets built by Elon Musk, The Beechcraft Starship was, in my opinion, the most amazing and beautiful avionics creation humanity has ever created. It's a shame that more people have not seen the genius in it's creation! Maybe one day another aerospace company will follow in the footsteps of Beechcraft and re-create the Starship to the glory it should have seen in the late 1980's!
Vapor wave, the aircraft
I've always helt sorry for the Starship. The only similaar aircraft around now is the Piaggio P180 and they seem to do OK. The Egg-Pusher.
Piaggio Avanti is a successor to the starships after they withdrawn from service.
*Cole-and-dra*
Didn't the Starship get 16 miles to the gallon at its turboprop speeds? For comparison to a modern plane, look at the Celera 500, powered by a diesel engine.
With a range of about 1000 miles, how did one get to Germany?
Multiple stops?
2:25....Gulfstream 3..
I've seen one in the air it makes the ZZZZZZZZZZZ noise.
Rocks from the main gear would destroy the propellers.
The Starship, the DeLorean, the Zumwalt class destroyers, the L85 British Army rifle, all scoring very high in the "cool factor" department, yet abject failures in the Real World .
I’m not being critical so please don’t take it that way... it’s just, I find it odd that the modern way of saying someone has died is to say they have... passed.
The person has died...
Just more PC stupidity. Get used to it as it will get much worse! The loons have the stick and we are just passengers!
"Passed" or "passed away" has been in use for a long time.
I was born in '65, and I remember octogenerians using it in my childhood. It is still in common use today in the U.S.
@@mbryson2899 I’ve only heard it in American tv and films... it’s only a recently use term here
@@macjim , having lived my whole life in heavily multicultural cities in the U.S. so I've heard a large number of terms and seen a wide variety of ways people deal with death. "He joined his ancestors" is one of my favorites. :)
Happy and safe holidays to you!
@@mbryson2899 you too...
History summed up..too fuckin heavy
Advanced technology ring so positive... But (normally) within a decade it is outdated and only a handful of contemporary technicians are enlightened to the "codec" of these types of "marvel".
Creating the equivalent of "ghost-towns", for aviation.
Too much complexity, soon cause various maintenance issues. Bringing dreams of individual ownership crashing down.
(Inflation accelerators)
It is a pity.
Because, I did mention, these are marvels.
The automotive world have it's examples of this too.
No, no. We much rather continue flying aircraft with internal combustion engines designed in the 1930's. Yes, that's true. Today 2021, we are flying a current Cessna or Piper or Beechcraft running on horizontally opposed piston engines dating to 1930. Beechcraft, yes, guilty as well, you can actually exchange a 2021 Bonanza engine cowling with an engine cowling from a 1947 Bonanza. No mods, no nothing.