Designed in the 1980s by Burt Rutan's company Scaled Composites and built by the Beech Aircraft Corporation, the Beechcraft Starship looks nothing like the other business transport of the day.
Technological advances in the plane include its all graphite composite frame, the first civilian aircraft with such an extensive amount to be certified; a canard design with the lifting surfaces behind the horizontal stabilizer; yaw control provided by small fins on the wingtips, which eliminated the need for a rudder; and a "glass cockpit," one of the few to be found in a civilian plane.
Power came from a pair of twin Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67A turboprop pusher engines mounted on the rear wing.
One of only 53 built, the Museum's plane is on loan to the Future of Flight located at Paine Field in Everett, Washington.
Designed in the 1980s by Burt Rutan's company Scaled Composites and built by the Beech Aircraft Corporation, the Beechcraft Starship looks nothing like the other business transport of the day.
Technological advances in the plane include its all graphite composite frame, the first civilian aircraft with such an extensive amount to be certified; a canard design with the lifting surfaces behind the horizontal stabilizer; yaw control provided by small fins on the wingtips, which eliminated the need for a rudder; and a "glass cockpit," one of the few to be found in a civilian plane.
Power came from a pair of twin Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67A turboprop pusher engines mounted on the rear wing.
One of only 53 built, the Museum's plane is on loan to the Future of Flight located at Paine Field in Everett, Washington.