Absolutely! There zero reason that it shouldn't be flying now that composites are common-place.

If you're a Beechcraft ER you know the sound of that engine you don't even have to look up. But aren't these the same engines they put on the 1900s

Thanks for sharing!👍👍👍

I thought the Starship was designed while Beech was owned by RTN. The Starship failure was one of the major reasons RTN dumped Beech.

@@PaulLascari Could be I got my order wrong. It just seemed likely because it was such a big cash drain. As for the why of RTN dumping Beech, it was well after the Starship had become a write-off. The Premier I jet, the ongoing costs associated with integrating the Hawker assets and personnel, and the launch of the new Hawker Horizon were big, too, and everything ran over budget, costing much more and taking much longer than "expected" and budgeted for. This ongoing, unplanned cash drain, combined with increasing competition on all levels, could not have been easy for RTN to swallow. During that time period, they took on Hughes Missiles & Defense, along with a giant load of debt. And they had ongoing issues with Rust Engineers and Constructors, which they couldn't even unload for some time because nobody really knew how big the associated liabilities with THAT company were. Once it was widely recognized that RTN was not the glowing success story at integrating its "new" subs, the giant mass of debt became more important (AND the stock dropped in value by ~85% within a few weeks). I think they were just trying to find a firm footing after that. It was also all part of a larger arc where they had earlier swung toward being a conglomerate, and were now swinging back toward being a "pure defense play". I haven't really kept up with their story since 2001, so there may be more interesting events worth considering (as a business case).

I’m just north of Chicago and I swear I saw it fly over tonight.

You were an exchange student to Wichita? Same! I loved it there.

@@savageman819 SouthEast High Golden Buff's baby! 😆👍 When and where were you there? I had a great time too, and have been back a couple of times to visit with my hostfamilies and for a reunion party at school.

@@OhNoNotFrank Oh for me that was from 2017-20 at a small private school. I'm still in the US rn, though not Kansas anymore.

@@savageman819 Enjoy!

Yeah, it really is.

One of them in Ukraine also flight

toddjlyons I was a beechcrafter in the late 70’s early 80’s just before they started this project. It was still Beech back then.

J S Beech thought they would tarnish their reputation, also I think there was some warranty type deal and they worried maintaining them would be too costly. They acted in their best interest; big deal. Obviously they didn't succeed in buying them all back

Beach could not keep up with the warranty. You can't let an airplane fly if everything's not working and if it's under the manufacturer's control then there could be a lot of problems. I worked for Raytheon Aircraft during that time they were called back

He farted

Michael Meredith that was the noise?

Before the Starship came along, the FAA had never certificated a composite airframe, so they were naturally very cautious when approached with the Starship design. In an effort to err on the safe side, the FAA essentially told Beech that although their design looked good on paper, the design would have to be significantly strengthened to receive certification. Beechcraft did so, adding significant additional structure to both the fuselage and wing. Of course, this added quite a bit of weight to the aircraft, so other components had to be beefed up as well, adding yet more weight and bumped it's weight into Type Rating required category as in the United States, a type rating is required to act as pilot in command (PIC) of any aircraft that exceeds 12,500 pounds maximum takeoff weight. So the PIC of a Starship, who as originally planned could have had (as a BARE MINIMUM to fly) a Private Pilot Certificate(~US$10,000) with Multi-Engine Class(~US$7,000) and Complex, High-Performance and High Altitude(~US$2,000 each) Endorsements gives you a Cost of about US$30,000 for training. But the executive whom already had flown the King Air would have needed just a familiarization on the new glass cockpit. With a Type Certificate requirement, the practical test standards (PTS) for issuance of a type rating essentially are the same as the airline transport pilot PTS, in terms of the required performance standards. So now your PIC needs, an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) Multi-Engine Certificate, which Means you need to match these Prerequisites: *1500 hours of total time as a pilot to include: **500 hours of cross-country flight time. **100 hours of night flight time. **50 hours of flight time in the class (single-engine or multi-engine) of airplane for the rating sought. **75 hours of instrument flight time, in actual or simulated conditions of which 50 hours must be in airplane. **250 hours of flight time as pilot in command, or as second in command performing the duties of pilot in command (under the supervision of the pilot in command), or any combination thereof, to include: ***100 hours of cross-country flight time; and ***25 hours of night flight time. Which gives an approximate cost in the ~US$90,000 for ATP training THEN you have to do the FAA BE-2000 Type Rating which needs a SECOND type rated pilot with you to fly it and Finally you can get an FAA BE-2000S to fly as a solo PIC... Plus With the Increase in Pilot certifications you had It entering a economic recession (1989), at a price comparable to a full blown Private jet (US$5,000,000), AND Raytheon, Beech's parent company, in a bid to attract people to order Starships, had the brilliant idea of offering free maintenance to buyers, which was done by Raytheon Aircraft Services (RAS) a separate company from Raytheon. When RAS facilities had slack periods in the early 90's, many of them found Starships on the ramp to work on. They would work on the Starships whether they needed it or not and many of these airplanes were still owned and operated by Raytheon as leased planes due to the high purchase price. Even if the Starship was owned by a private party, owners didn't care how big the invoice was because Raytheon was paying the tab. With nobody questioning the invoices, one can imagine the scale of the billings that took place. Raytheon Bean-counters would ask RAS to explain why the Starship fleet was so expensive to maintain. RAS would respond that the Starship was a very complex airplane that was difficult to work on. Raytheon accepted these claims and continued paying the maintenance bills. But in reality, the free maintenance program was a billing machine for RAS and nobody at Raytheon had the incentive to figure it out and end it. The free maintenance program resulted in record billings to Raytheon, souring management's view of the Starship and frightening prospective customers. Raytheon management bought the RAS line that the Starship was complex and difficult to work on, eventually putting the red ink to bed by killing Starship production at 53. Some parts of my answer were stolen from Bob Scherer, owner of Starship 2000A NC-51. (www.bobscherer.com/Pages/Starship.htm)

Ups ... another "Zeitfresser"

M Do you see a rudder? That's why they're so big.