Starships Headed to SlaughterThe Beech Starship fleet is being destroyed at the behest of its manufacturer Raytheon, which owns 40 of the 50 production airplanes built between 1988 and 1995. In recent weeks Starships have been flown to Pinal Air Park in Marana, Ariz., near Tucson, and corralled at Evergreen Air Center's heavy maintenance facility, which at press time had destroyed six airplanes by sawing them up and burning the carbon-fiber sections in an incinerator. The goal is to complete the destruction of the airplanes under Raytheon control by year-end. Asked why, a company spokesman said, "The costs of supporting the fleet are prohibitive. There are many parts on the Starship that are unique to that aircraft. We have a backlog of parts, and we will part out those aircraft that are beingdecommissioned to add to that backlog." He also asserted that, with such a small number of in-service airplanes, retrofitting the fleet for new requirements such as RVSM is a prohibitively expensive proposition. "The Starship was a good aircraft that unfortunately didn't meet market acceptance," the Raytheon Aircraft spokesman said. Looking on the positive side, the spokesman noted that the twin-turboprop pusher served as a "springboard for the knowledge and experience with composites that have taken us to the Premier I and Horizon."A friend of mine who's a TBM700 owner wrote to me:=====================================BILL,I flew into Pinal yesterday and was stunned to see so many Starshipson the ramp. A very sad sight...Johnsn 116=====================================BillAVSIM OmbudsmanFounder and Director,Creative Recycling of Aircraft Partshttp://catholic-hymns.com/frbill/FS2002/images/fartslogo.jpg

Bill...Just wondering if this is more appropriate for Hangar Chat--leading by example, and all that :)Sorry to see the demise of the Starship though....

Actually it's already posted there so I'll lock this one down and we can gather round the coffee pot over there and chat about this one.:)