Starships are quite Large!

jwp_145

GhostRider in the Sky
There is a Starship based here at KRVS that we've had the opportunity to clean a few times. I really underestimated the size of this thing. It just keeps going and going and going...

Nice cockpit too. The entire plane is interesting. I know the pilot and he says that not only was it his first Type back during the production run when he was a test pilot for Beech, but that it is one of the best flying aircraft he's ever flown.

I'm not sure of the serial number.
 

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Very cool! I really want to see one of these in person one day. I got really excited because I thought I saw one climbing out of LUK, then realized it was an Avanti.
 
I thought they went the way of the dodo?

Parts support? It was my understanding that beech said if you want them you are on your own for parts?
 
I thought they went the way of the dodo?

Parts support? It was my understanding that beech said if you want them you are on your own for parts?

You are correct, but a couple of owners bought all available spares an stuck them all in storage. They might have bought an airframe or two, too. And then there is the ol' 337.
 
There are still a few of them flying and some still floating around for parts. Rutan's group is supporting them now. There was one for sale earlier this year in one of the Aero-Trader type magazines.

Yeah - it's a big airplane. Max takeoff weight is 15,000 pounds if I remember correctly. The tip sails are 13 feet tall I think. Try putting oil in that SOB! You have to get a ladder and climb up on the wing then walk back to the engine - the fill cap is on the top of the cowling. It has an remote panel on the bottom of the wing to check the oil level on preflights.

I was cleaning out my office this weekend and came across the FlightSafety manuals for it. It's a great airplane - ALOT of fun to fly. Raytheon used our Starship (NC-47) as a demo ship for a while so we had alot of different 'loaners' when they would take our airplane. I ended up flying about 25% of the Starship fleet.
 
I have seen a few over at RFD, not in a while though.

Back in "the day" (10 years ago?) they were everywhere it seemed.
 
One come into KGKY every once in a while and its pretty cool to check out. The owner/pilot is a major Ahole tho..
 
I have seen a few over at RFD, not in a while though.

Back in "the day" (10 years ago?) they were everywhere it seemed.

There were only 53 production aircraft built and it seemed that only about 40 or so were actively flying at any given time. There was a pretty decent concentration of them in the Great Lakes region - ours was in Indianapolis, there was another in northern Indiana, 1 or 2 flying charters in Ohio, 1 in Milwaukee, a couple in the greater Chicago-land area and a couple in Grand Rapids.
 
I got to visit for the day with the owner of NC-51...N514RS (offical chase plane for Scaled Composites) out at SNA. Awesome airplane to say the least. The guy flies a lot between SNA and Aspen with a lot of SoCal flying too.
 
I was down at KRVS this last week and I saw this one takeoff on 19R. First time I've ever seen one up close. BEAUTIFUL aircraft!
 
It is a cool airplane but a bit of a maintenance hog. I got to fly it a bit when I was working for a management company. It is a very nice flying aircraft though.
 
There is a Starship based here at KRVS that we've had the opportunity to clean a few times. I really underestimated the size of this thing. It just keeps going and going and going...

Nice cockpit too. The entire plane is interesting. I know the pilot and he says that not only was it his first Type back during the production run when he was a test pilot for Beech, but that it is one of the best flying aircraft he's ever flown.

I'm not sure of the serial number.


Got any more pics?
 
There were only 53 production aircraft built and it seemed that only about 40 or so were actively flying at any given time. There was a pretty decent concentration of them in the Great Lakes region - ours was in Indianapolis, there was another in northern Indiana, 1 or 2 flying charters in Ohio, 1 in Milwaukee, a couple in the greater Chicago-land area and a couple in Grand Rapids.

Didn't we go to school together? I remember some cat I went to college with flew one out of KIND
 
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