Look what I saw

I was in Aspen checking out the airplane on the North Ramp getting ready for a later flight. Stored on the ramp was the Beech Starship.


Then I flew home to KMYF and found the Cirrus Jet. I saw some cool history and the future all in one day.

Man I love the Starship. I've only seen one once, at Gnoss field (DVO) in Novato when I was a little kid.

Inigo,
you missed another opportunity then. When the Cirrus jets were on the ramp in KMYF a line guy told me the last flying Starship had just landed. I assumed it was the one I had just seen, but turns out there is more than one still flying. I think it was here a few days and kept at Gibbs aviation, I'll let you know if it comes back.

That cirrus jet looks... Stubby. Starship is awesome. I thought they would sound like a piaggo, but more king airish sounding.

Awesome! Such a cool looking airplane. There is a member here who has some time in one if I remember correctly.

The landing gear looks like it lands a bit firm

Is it me or has jet designs come full circle?
This is what first came to mind when I first saw the Cirrus Jet.

Man, I remember being a line guy in OAK in 2000 and seeing Starships on a semi-regular basis. On a slow night, one of the pilots let me sit up in the cockpit with him while he was waiting for his pax. I can see how it was such a cool airplane for its day. I think Rutan still has his in airworthy condition down in Mojave.

Meanwhile, I really like the look of that Cirrus Jet. Well, not literally the look because it's not exactly sexy; but the concept. They're right on target with the next generation of GA. I hope, unlike the Starship, that this airplane is able to meet its performance goals.

I think Rutan retired to Oregon, gave up aviation for fishing.

I am sure they are still working on the performance goals on the Cirrus Jet. It's hard to tell from the cockpit picture but this is a prototype with wires and sensors and computers running throughout. The doors had a bar looking like an escape mechanism and I believe the pilots wore chutes when flying. There was a demo flight that evening but I did not have my big camera so did not wait around to see it.

Had to look up Starships to find out more info and found this photo of the same ship I saw. This ship NC51 is only one of 9 still airworthy. It was used for the SpaceShip launch as a chase plane.

I still want the boomerang, badly.

If the Cirrus Jet is the future of aviation, I'm quitting it.

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit....

I just spent 40 minutes on wikipedia because of this post! Boomerang -> Burt Rutan -> Voyager -> Steve Fossett -> Tropic of Cancer
Rutan -> Scaled Composites -> SpaceshipOne -> Ansari X Prize
Rutan -> Beechcraft Starship

It's a shame the brilliant minds of my generation are concentrating on creating financial derivatives (read: money out of thin air) instead of following up on Rutan's work.

I'm not saying its going to replace your large corporate jet or the A380, but something has to replace twin pistons and king airs. I'd trade my king air for one of these just to get something in the jet column. Plus it has a parachute.

I posted some pics of a Starship that landed at KTKI one night when I was getting my PPL. They should be in the archives here somehwere...

Saw him out in Michigan last year! Such an awesome airplane!

When you have SE T-Props that go faster and burn less fuel I have to wonder where this will fit in. The TBM 850 will do 320 KTAS (20 knots faster) and will get up to FL310 (3000ft higher) at 60GPH (2 GPH less). I'm just not seeing a market when comparable SE T-props are already available.