The Starship was a production aircraft - I think dating back to before Raytheon bought Beechcraft, but I can't swear to that. I found out that it was a Rutan design (or that Rutan had something to do with it) only after meeting both Burt and Dick Rutan on seperate occasions.
As far as I know Burt was/is still flying his - I saw some footage of it chasing the White Knight, IIRC. I used to see one flying into Vegas airport on occasion as well...neat airplane. Never seen a model of one.
That's actually pretty old for an airplane that spends a lot of time flying at low altitude - going on 20 odd years. That's pretty old for a sea-going tactical aircraft.
The ability to estimate fatigue in a metal airframe is pretty well understood, so again, they may just be playing conservative - it's not like you can beef up structure on a VSTOL jet without impacting performance.
Get out those umbrellas!
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr. Sheesh!
i believe there is a guy that has one. i saw a discovery show about the starship and it wasn't bad burt.
Yell for the Americans??
Bill Shuey
How long ago? I'd like to think that there are more out there still flying.
It was on just last week. He originally purchased one and when the end came he bought a warehouse full of spare parts and a few of the Starships themselves...
within the year. he has a huge pile of parts and even some airframes. he refused repeatedly to give it up and flys it often. wish i could remember his name.
you didn't catch his name?
Everything you wanted to know about Starships still being used:
tanks, haro. you da man.
Great! That settles that.
was starting to think i hallucibinated.
What I'd like to know is how much it would take to haul one out of a museum and get it flying again...didn't know there were so many left in existance.
...and I'd also like to see the results of the tests on the ones that were cut up.
i think bill gates money and influence. which tests? tdd's?
Probably structural bending, torsion, and pull tests to failure. And ultrasounds. At least I hope so. The site mentions four ships that were donated for "composites testing"...and I'd like to hope that they didn't just rip the other 26 of them apart, but actually took the time to learn soemthing from them.
As an aside to this thread, what are the options in kits for the Eurofighter, SAAB and Dassault entries anyway. I know the available kits for the F-22 and F-35 are pretty bad, at least in 1/48 scale.
Bill Shuey
Rufus:
I understand your meaning, however I was referring to the quality of the kits.
Bill Shuey
I thought I had read some good reviews on at least one of the F/A-22 kits on the market...but I'd expect the F-35 ones to suffer from all of the pitfalls the early F/A-18E/F kits did. Never buy a kit of a paper airplane...unless it's a paper kit.
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