What was that airplane?

Two weeks ago I was down in NJ visiting the inlaws. They live in
Cedar Grove, and there is normally a LOT of airplane activity overhead
from Kennedy, Laquardia and Newark, beside Caldwell and a few other
airports nearby.

While I was sitting out on the back deck enjoying the sunshine and
warm temperatures I heard an unusual sounding engine noise. I looked
up and saw a sleek white airplane buzz by with what appeared to be two
turboprops mounted on pylons off the rear of the fuselage. I couldn't
tell for sure but I assumed that the buzzing sound was a result of the
props being at the rear of the pylons. It was moving quickly and I
only got a glimps of it.

Anybody know that that was?

Thanks, Corky Scott

Might have been a Beechcraft Starship. They are getting rare, beech is
trying to buy them back and cease support.
Ron
wrote in message
...
Two weeks ago I was down in NJ visiting the inlaws. They live in
Cedar Grove, and there is normally a LOT of airplane activity overhead
from Kennedy, Laquardia and Newark, beside Caldwell and a few other
airports nearby.

While I was sitting out on the back deck enjoying the sunshine and
warm temperatures I heard an unusual sounding engine noise. I looked
up and saw a sleek white airplane buzz by with what appeared to be two
turboprops mounted on pylons off the rear of the fuselage. I couldn't
tell for sure but I assumed that the buzzing sound was a result of the
props being at the rear of the pylons. It was moving quickly and I
only got a glimps of it.

Anybody know that that was?

Thanks, Corky Scott

"Ron Snipes" wrote in message
news:z1Ujc.3500$pJ1.3246@lakeread02...
Might have been a Beechcraft Starship. They are getting rare, beech is
trying to buy them back and cease support.

Hey, Ron. Any idea why they're doing this? Something wrong with them are
are they just not lucrative enough for the company to support?

-c
PP/ASEL

gatt wrote:

Hey, Ron. Any idea why they're doing this? Something wrong with them are
are they just not lucrative enough for the company to support?

The latter. There aren't enough of them out there to justify support.

George Patterson
If you don't tell lies, you never have to remember what you said.

Hey, Ron. Any idea why they're doing this? Something wrong with them are
are they just not lucrative enough for the company to support?

The latter. There aren't enough of them out there to justify support.


I have read (but have not confirmed) that the reason there aren't enough of
them is that their performance is not all that hot, especially for the price.

Jose

--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

Teacherjh wrote:

I have read (but have not confirmed) that the reason there aren't enough of
them is that their performance is not all that hot, especially for the price.

Pretty much correct. The original design took full advantage of composite
construction and probably would have been a great airplane. The FAA made Beech add a
lot of reinforcement with materials the FAA understands (eg. steel, aluminbum, etc.),
and the added weight pretty much made it uncompetitive.

As they say in the miltary, the first guys to hit the beach get mowed down.

George Patterson
If you don't tell lies, you never have to remember what you said.

In a previous article, said:
Two weeks ago I was down in NJ visiting the inlaws. They live in
Cedar Grove, and there is normally a LOT of airplane activity overhead
from Kennedy, Laquardia and Newark, beside Caldwell and a few other
airports nearby.

As I said in my blog entry of November 14th, 2003, whenever anybody asks
"what was that airplane", they just saw a Beech Starship:
http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/000112.html
http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/000117.html
http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/000313.html


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"You are installing Internet Explorer 4.0. Windows NT needs to overwrite
all your system dll's and restart your computer. Note that this
application is NOT part of the operating system. Good luck."

Well it could have been a Piaggio Avanti, another very unique looking plane,
does have a canard, but not a "rear wing" think its more of a "3 lifting
surface" aircraft, wiht twin turboprops in a pusher configuration. Looking
at it from the front it looks like a catfish.... Here's a link::
http://www.piaggioamerica.com/ And i haven't seen a starship in a long time,
hear beech is trying to buy them back and hack them to bits.


"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
In a previous article, said:
Two weeks ago I was down in NJ visiting the inlaws. They live in
Cedar Grove, and there is normally a LOT of airplane activity overhead
from Kennedy, Laquardia and Newark, beside Caldwell and a few other
airports nearby.

As I said in my blog entry of November 14th, 2003, whenever anybody asks
"what was that airplane", they just saw a Beech Starship:
http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/000112.html
http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/000117.html
http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/000313.html


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"You are installing Internet Explorer 4.0. Windows NT needs to overwrite
all your system dll's and restart your computer. Note that this
application is NOT part of the operating system. Good luck."

On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 20:07:05 +0000 (UTC),
(Paul Tomblin) wrote:

As I said in my blog entry of November 14th, 2003, whenever anybody asks
"what was that airplane", they just saw a Beech Starship:

I know what the Starship and the Piaggio Avanti look like and this
definately wasn't either. Remember, I said the engines were mounted
on pylons. They were not mounted on the rear of the wing. They were
hung out off the rear fuselage and the wing was clean and not swept
back.

It's possible that there was a canard, but I really did not see one.
i'm only assuming that the engines had the props facing the rear
because of the strange noise it made, I did not actually see the props
themselves as the airplane was moving fast and there were trees in the
way of my view.

Corky Scott

wrote in message
...
[...] I did not actually see the props
themselves as the airplane was moving fast and there were trees in the
way of my view.

Any chance there were no props, and it was some sort of turbofan that just
happened to sound like it had props? Especially given that it didn't even
sound like a normal prop airplane? Modern, high-bypass turbofans make what
I think is a decidedly non-jet sound.

Given that you didn't see the props, what makes you so certain there were
any?

I can't think of any prop twin with engines mounted on pylons attached to
the rear fuselage, but I can think of lots of jets like that. For sure, I'd
think if there was a prop twin with that configuration, it'd make for easy
identification; surely there aren't *two* types like that.

Pete