Raytheon Starship (N903SC)

Awesome! Quite a weird looking aircraft!

Saw three Starships at one time at the Raytheon FBO at Tampa In'tl years ago. Really a beautiful a/c.

Needless to say this bird was designed by Burt Rutan. When he came to Oshkosh this year (2015) he arrived in his own version (N514RS). All of these have been updated to the 2001 version by using parts as needed. There are not too many of these still flying and from what I found out there were only about a dozen or so ever built.

Saw one (the prototype, perhaps?) at the NBAA Expo in Dallas. Lovely aircraft!

I saw about a half a dozen of these at KAVQ a few years ago. They all appeared to be mothballed. I don't know if they are still there. See:
http://flightaware.com/photos/view/729112-8c64a4de15d66c32bcf5c77b18f45bbdbd9e3035/user/byingtongh/sort/dateasc/page/2
It is an unusual design, but still pretty.

The word I heard at the time was that it underperformed (overly high drag coeff as I recall), which is a pity if true, as it is a beautiful bird.

Certified to FL410 it will do 300kt on 100gal/hour. the problem wasn't drag but instead being overweight due to the FAA not understanding composites and requiring the fuselage to have twice as much structure as was really needed. the big plus to this design is it is virtually unstallable and therefore unspinable making it a very safe aircraft. this one has been remanufactured as an exp. after beech/raytheon decommed it along with a bunch of the other starships. that is why it is currently listed with a different manufactures name.

I got to fly one of these on a demo flight. Had a bunch of other pilots on board. Made one of the smoothest landings ever. Another pilot on the next leg bombed it on so hard on landing, we were worried that there was damage.

It was a torture chamber in the back due to noise. Quiet up front. Excellent in turbulence.

N8025L