Starship Times Two

OK, unfortunately this video is out of date and there are no longer 53 of these beautiful planes flying.
This was the first video I shot with a brand new entry-level digital video camera back in October of 2000. I was returning from work on a Friday afternoon when I spotted Starship I (N500CP) on short final to the Livermore airport in California. I ran by home, picked up my camera, and ran down to the airport. It was getting dark but the pilot said he would be taking off on Saturday.
Upon talking to the line crew for fueling, we found out a second Starship (N48FL) was due back Saturday afternoon as well. Dan with 500CP waited as long as he could but then finally had to leave. As I was picking up my tripod I heard the distinctive sound of the second Starship just after the first had taken off.
Both aircraft were out of the Los Angeles area.

For a video on the Starship made by the History Channel, see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vSiiE2cyuc

Here's a link to a Smithsonian Air & Space article entitled "Beached Starship" that has some more of the Starship story. The photo with the on-line article is of a LearFan, a third revolutionary twin-engine pusher-prop configuration that failed to make it into production.
http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/starship.html

Robert Scherer's Starship web site:
http://www.bobscherer.com/Pages/Starship.htm

Enjoy art in motion.

,

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Beechcraft
• Starship
• Times
• Two
• 2000a
• Burt
• Rutan
• Voyager
• Long-EZ
• Long
• EZ
• LVK
• KLVK
• Livermore
• N500CP
• N47FL
• canard
• wing
• Piaggio
• Avanti
• Planespotting

[Austyg]

What's the main advantage of a canard type design of airplane?

[paralleler]

@Austyg I believe the two main advantages to the canard design are stability (it's hard to stall them) and aerodynamics (thrust from the propeller is not dragged along the fuselage).

[jfracch]

Hate to break this to you, but only about 5-10 starships are still flying today. The company bought out most leases from owners becuase producing the parts and providing the maintainence wasn't cost effective

[paralleler]

Unfortunately you didn't catch that this video was created over nine years ago and what you mention was covered in the upper right in the Information window. For more details on what you're pointing out, search YouTube for:

History Channel Starship Boneyard

[sakoshooter48]

FAA, synonymous with Friends Against Aviation!

[RocKiteman]

BEAUTIFUL turboprop....

[ATLRCFlyer]

Mama Long-EZ...:-)

[budyzr63]

It wasnt the numbr of aircraft it was delayes in production that made the cost of the plane go up so high it wasnt worth buying. To bad to it was a great plane.

[oldrumer4u]

@diakrite Remember the old "footage" of the flying wing from the 1950"s look what came about with the B2 Bomber,this beautiful aircraft is years ahead of it's time,cutting edge tech is always hard in the beginning,don't give up hope for this beautiful piece of avaition

[XPGlowWorm]

Very nice to see them flying around.

[flightdeckreviews]

@paralleler This IS the most beautiful turbo ever made! This plane was SO ahead of it time that the new boeing 787 is made of only 80% composits and this plane is made of ALL composits.I amases me every time I see this machine.

[kylemontanaro]

@paralleler The actual reason why it's hard to maintain is because of the extremely high production costs not of the actual materials themselves but rather because of the long time it took for the FAA to certify it, the cost to overcome the company expenses was much bigger.