The Starship has landed
 

History was made yesterday when the last (?) ever Beech Starship movement in Australia shut down at Pay's Flying Museum in Scone, NSW.

Photos to come soon.

One of the conditions of the acquisition was that the data plates would be removed and returned to Raytheon, and that it doesn't fly once it gets here.:*

Was was the real problem with these machines the fact that the 'public' wouldn't fly in something that looked like a Rutan experimental? I thought the TAS was quite good for a corporate machine? Commerical failure and technical success - or just ahead of its time?

Saw a picture of a whole fleet lined up in the desert awaiting destruction - surely the resale for some decent price would be worthwhile? Or am I missing something?
I remember seeing one at BK in the very early '90's thinking it looked fantastic.

A sad outcome in my opinion.
Article on the Starship

StarShip in the Rutan Spaceship One Fleet
History Link

Tragic end to a great concept.

Woomera

All remaining airframes were bought back by Raytheon so they could be scraped. It was purely an economic decision as they did not want to support the very small fleet numbers.

Bevan

I think the price was a major factor.........

When I did some training at Raytheon, it was like "dont mention the starship........."

What a monumental flop.

A few of us had the pleasure of seeing the Starship fly into Moree yesterday, very quick visit!

ST:cool:

I have been fortunate enough to see the starship fly out of YSBK a few times, and see the Concorde depart Sydney. both aircraft will be missed!



is it just me or have the advances in aircraft design been very slow in recent times??? why arnt we all flying to London at mach 3? oh, i forgot, the $$ factor, oh well, sad to see techical evolution reduced to a standstill because of the almighty $

Gday
I was lucky enough to get a fly in it when it arrived at the Mangalore Easter Flyin in the early nineties with Ray (I think was the demo pilots name) we carried out several low level runs down the runway at 250 kts into a 45 deg climb and a wingover around 3000’.It had the first glass cockpit I had seen and all leather interior. I was sorry to see it fail, but seem to remember it came in way over projected weight and somewhat slower.
Can still smell the leather.
Cheers Q

I don't think Rutan will shed too many tears....

He's got bigger things on his mind with spaceships :D

There is an excellent article on this in the latest Aircraft & Aerospace magazine. It answers a lot of the questions raised here.