The Beechcraft Starship.

I emailed Robert Scherer (who is “rps” of the above site) to draw his attention to the thread and as an owner he said:

“A couple of folks on the thread were wondering why pusher turboprops like the Starship make their signature “buzzing” sound. The sound is caused by the turbine exhaust passing through the propeller disk.

All the best,

Robert Scherer
Starship NC-51 (N514RS)”

The Avanti also has a unique sound. Perhaps something about pushers (the Cessna 337 sounds a bit odd as well) with the sound bounching off rear fuselage?

The unique sound is a result of the combination of airflow over the wings mixing with the exhaust efflux of the PT-6’s. 🙂

It was more than just politics…IIRC, the way it was built with composites made it very labor intensive to build compared with later designs that use
different methods to form composites.

The B-36 was famous for its distinctive sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN2gYduKeW0&feature=related

It was attributed to air flowing over the wings and through the props. Unusual sounds seem to be a common trait of pushers.

Getting back to the Starship, Air & Space Smithsonian had an article about it several years ago. Much of it concerned the politics within Beechcraft. It seems that the Starship’s favored status when the rest of the company was retrenching created a resentful faction aching for a chance to ax it. That chance eventually came.

The Avanti also has a unique sound. Perhaps something about pushers (the Cessna 337 sounds a bit odd as well) with the sound bounching off rear fuselage?

I don’t know how many are still flying but there seems to be one based at Dulles as I have seen it there several times. One even flew over my house a couple of weeks back, probably the same one. The sound is so characteristic it’s impossible to confuse with any other aircraft.

QP

This is probably badly remembered half truths but I think there was some controversy about Beech being taken over by Ratheon who got cold feet about the design, and thought buyers would be reassured by a generous warranty policy. The result was a rush of warranty repairs which were uneconomical and so Raytheon’s accountants (unfamiliar with economics and game theory) bought the entire production run back except for a few which stayed in the wild – one was used as a chase plane for Scaled Composites.

As far as safety of carbon composite structures is concerned, when they’re in good condition they are peerless. I speak as somebody who accidentally hit a concrete wall backwards at around 80mph in a carbon car and got out muttering about my rubbish driving.

One passed overhead while I was driving near BWI Airport in 1999. It made a distinctive sound that’s hard to describe, rather like the flapping sound we made when we were kids by putting a baseball card in a bicycle’s spinning spokes.

They sound like the old Portsmouth – IOW hovercraft.

Quite a few used to fly in & out of VNY. That aircraft was an expensive lesson…

Please correct me if i am wrong but i think one of these used to fly from Cranfield in the early 1990’s i remember it as it was such an odd design.

Was a Rutan with the ITPS

One passed overhead while I was driving near BWI Airport in 1999. It made a distinctive sound that’s hard to describe, rather like the flapping sound we made when we were kids by putting a baseball card in a bicycle’s spinning spokes.

Maybe this one (1990 in Farnborough, only European registered Starship)
N1508S – OY-GEA
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?cnsearch=NC-8&distinct_entry=true

Please correct me if i am wrong but i think one of these used to fly from Cranfield in the early 1990’s i remember it as it was such an odd design.

curlyboy

One of the few flying is based out of a small city near here…the last place you’d expect to find an exotic, composite turbine.

IIRC, the owner is one of the heads of the club that is dedicated to keeping them flying.

One is also at the Evergreen Museum…so you can see one when you go to the 747 waterslide. 😀

Starships

I saw the lineup of Starships at Marana last winter and wondered what was going on. it was a weekend and no one around to question. Interesting stuff. Some one used to operate one out of Macarren @’Vegas a few years back.

Interesting stuff – thanks for the link Newforest.:)