Composite Meltdown

[Burt Compton]

From Aerokurier Magazine:

BEECH BURNS ALL STARSHIPS
Raytheon Aircraft Company is taking unusual measures to limit the overflowing
cost of spare part acquisition for the Starship two-engine turboprop pusher:
The company is buying the aircraft back from their owners and burning them,
after removing all re-usable parts. A total of 53 Starships were built,
including 3 prototypes and 50 production aircraft. On June 14th 1989 the
composite-built aircraft received its FAA certification. However, it was not
able to assert itself against the King Air, which it was designed to replace.
There are only ten Starships left in private ownership, with all others
being owned by Raytheon. The first six machines have been stripped by a company
in Missouri and destroyed in compliance with EPA (Environmental Protection
Agency) procedures. Raytheon has some requests for Starships from museums, but
has not yet decided if some will escape destruction via this route.

[Ralph Jones]

On 22 Aug 2003 14:07:51 GMT, (Burt Compton) wrote:

>From Aerokurier Magazine:
>
>BEECH BURNS ALL STARSHIPS
>Raytheon Aircraft Company is taking unusual measures to limit the overflowing
>cost of spare part acquisition for the Starship two-engine turboprop pusher:
>The company is buying the aircraft back from their owners and burning them,
>after removing all re-usable parts. A total of 53 Starships were built,
>including 3 prototypes and 50 production aircraft. On June 14th 1989 the
>composite-built aircraft received its FAA certification. However, it was not
>able to assert itself against the King Air, which it was designed to replace.
> There are only ten Starships left in private ownership, with all others
>being owned by Raytheon. The first six machines have been stripped by a company
>in Missouri and destroyed in compliance with EPA (Environmental Protection
>Agency) procedures. Raytheon has some requests for Starships from museums, but
>has not yet decided if some will escape destruction via this route.
>
Raytheon also quietly restored the Beechcraft name to that line of
airplanes, after noticing that no owner ever said "I fly a Raytheon."

rj

[Ralph Jones]

On Fri, 22 Aug 2003 17:08:29 +0000 (UTC), "tango4"
> wrote:

>Any chance we could talk the IGC into doing the same with the PW5?
>
No...Beechcraft PW5 just doesn't sound right.

rj

[mrw]

My guess is that the real reason is to limit their exposure from the legal
field. I'm guessing Arthur Wolk was sitting on the sidelines just waiting
for one to fall out of the sky.Since there are only a handfull out there, it
is much cheaper to buy them back than defend against the grieving widow and
her land shark


"Burt Compton" > wrote in message
...
> From Aerokurier Magazine:
>
> BEECH BURNS ALL STARSHIPS
> Raytheon Aircraft Company is taking unusual measures to limit the
overflowing
> cost of spare part acquisition for the Starship two-engine turboprop
pusher:
> The company is buying the aircraft back from their owners and burning
them,
> after removing all re-usable parts. A total of 53 Starships were built,
> including 3 prototypes and 50 production aircraft. On June 14th 1989 the
> composite-built aircraft received its FAA certification. However, it was
not
> able to assert itself against the King Air, which it was designed to
replace.
> There are only ten Starships left in private ownership, with all
others
> being owned by Raytheon. The first six machines have been stripped by a
company
> in Missouri and destroyed in compliance with EPA (Environmental Protection
> Agency) procedures. Raytheon has some requests for Starships from museums,
but
> has not yet decided if some will escape destruction via this route.
>
>