Beech Starship? SpaceShipOne?

No, you didn't really see a Beech Starship flying past. You saw the
proof-of-concept forerunner to the Beech Starship that was built by Rutan's
Scaled Composites flying past.

The Starship POC was intentionally destroyed by having a bulldozer run
over it many years ago.

"David Lednicer" wrote in message
...

The Starship POC was intentionally destroyed by having a bulldozer run
over it many years ago.


Now that you mention it, that does sound familiar. The aircraft as seen on
CNN looked smaller than a standard Beech 2000.

It is a Starship owned by one of the Scaled Composite people. I could tell you
more, but the guy who knows the most is shut down. He has exceeded the download
limit on his website (www.bobscherer.com -- don't make it worse :-)

The prototype was wrecked by a bulldozer (or something) when Raytheon pulled
the plug. There were only about 54 built and they didn't want to be in the
spares business for a fleet that small and didn't want to hang on till the
economy turned up a little later. I'm sure they are getting a small
satisfaction out of using it as a chase plane and getting all this media
attention.

-- Charlie Springer

-- Charlie Springer