Beechcraft 2000 Starship

[billn53]

This unusual visitor showed up at my local airport a few years back. I thought I’d share the photos I took.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ForestFan]

That's rather spectacular looking! Is there a reason this a/c wasn't a success? Am I right in thinking that the manufacturer purchased back all the airframes (or did I dream that) ?

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

57 minutes ago, ForestFan said:

That's rather spectacular looking! Is there a reason this a/c wasn't a success? Am I right in thinking that the manufacturer purchased back all the airframes (or did I dream that) ?

I had read that as well, but this is the Wiki entry and it says several still active. 
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechcraft_Starship
 

Dennis

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

1 hour ago, ForestFan said:

That's rather spectacular looking! Is there a reason this a/c wasn't a success? Am I right in thinking that the manufacturer purchased back all the airframes (or did I dream that) ?

 

In a nutshell it was very expensive and rather slow compared to its competition, and released at an unfortunate time economically speaking.

[billn53]

There is also a 1/72 kit available from A-Model

 

 

[wallyinoz]

Saw one at Oshkosh in 2015 lovely looking machine:

 

[Ol' Scrapiron]

Those must have been nice to see in action... I have photographed a couple at museums but they looked like they were not ever going to see the runway again. Bumping into one at an airport (or seeing fly at Oshkosh) must have been a real treat!!!

 

Beechcraft 2000A Starship

Pima Air Museum 2017

 

Beechcraft 2000A Starship

Evergreen Museum 2018

[busnproplinerfan]

I remember when these came out, thought the future was here.  Actually a very good looking plane. To bad they didn't catch on more. None ever got registered in Canada I guess? Have a kit but don't want to do it with kit decals.

[wallyinoz]

2 hours ago, Ol' Scrapiron said:

Those must have been nice to see in action... I have photographed a couple at museums but they looked like they were not ever going to see the runway again. Bumping into one at an airport (or seeing fly at Oshkosh) must have been a real treat!!!

 

Beechcraft 2000A Starship

Pima Air Museum 2017

 

Beechcraft 2000A Starship

Evergreen Museum 2018

Yeah, I was surprised  to see it as I thought Beech had bought them all back and scrapped them

[Truro Model Builder]

I thought so too, but according to Wikipedia:

 

The last Starship, NC-53, was produced in 1995. In 2003 Beechcraft said that supporting such a small fleet of airplanes was cost-prohibitive and began scrapping and incinerating the aircraft under its control. The aircraft were sent to the Evergreen Air Center located at the Pinal Airpark in Arizona for destruction. 4 non-airworthy aircraft are currently in storage at Marana Regional Airport (KAVQ) 8 nautical miles (15 km) southeast of Pinal Airpark. Beech worked with owners of privately owned Starships to replace their airplanes with other Beech aircraft such as the Premier I jet.

 

In 2004 Raytheon sold off its entire inventory of Starship parts to a Starship owner for a fraction of its retail value.

 

Beechcraft continues to offer support by telephone.

[John B]

Such an evocative design.  It made such a splash on the cover of aviation magazines of the time. 

Perhaps it was ahead of it's time since the Piaggio P.180 Avanti is successful enough to still in production and they seem to cater/have catered towards the same market?

Thank you billn53 for posting images of what was still (at the time) a flying example.   I did a quick search of the N-number and didn't turn up anything on her recent activity. I hope she's still a flyer. 

[72modeler]

I have seen only two in the air, but that was a long time ago. Very impressive!  Looks  like a '46 Luftwaffe what-if design; should be in RLM 81/82/76.

Mike

[Ol' Scrapiron]

On 9/21/2020 at 6:54 PM, 72modeler said:

Looks  like a '46 Luftwaffe what-if design; should be in RLM 81/82/76.

Actually reminds me of the Kyushu J7W1 Shinden and would look plausible with hinomaru on the wings and fuselage

[Archer_VC10]

The rumour mill said that Beechcraft was feeling increasingly unhappy to have this first-generation carbon airframe out there clocking up hours, as they didn't know how it would age. The 'costs of supporting a small fleet' argument may have covered up some of those concerns as well. I believe at least one Starship is still out there being flown, and I guess it is this private individual who snapped up all the spares. He basically refused Beechcraft's offer to buy back the Starship (which included a very sweet deal on a new King Air).

[Ben Brown]

Great looking airplane! I used to fly for a company that had one in its fleet and got to fly it once for a few minutes. It’s hard to explain how it felt different from a conventional plane, it just had a different seat of the pants “feel.” The one my company flew was a real hangar queen. I was told by the guys who normally flew it that it regularly fried a $10,000 circuit board. It was faster than the King Air 200 but not as fast as a Cessna Citation. I read somewhere that Raytheon more than made up for their losses with the Starship program with the knowledge they picked up pioneering composite construction techniques.

 

Ben