posted on Oct, 23 2013 @ 05:20 PM
reply to post by kkrattiger
The Starship was designed in the 1980's when there was a brief fad for adventurous looking Canards in the corporate sector. This came on the heels of
the launch of the LearFan pusher turboprop in the late 70's and it's extensive use of composite structures.
Most of these proposals came from start up companies who disappeared with their designs, such as the AvTek 400 and Omac Laser 300 and the Starship was
the response from Beech with the design being commissioned from Burt Rutan. His Scaled Composites company built the demonstrator which drew heavily on
SC's previous small private canards such as the VariEze and Defiant.
This craze quickly died away however and the only aircraft to emerge with any kind of success was the Piaggio Avanti. This had begun as a joint
venture with Gates ( of Learjet fame) but the US partner withdrew.
edit on 23-10-2013 by waynos because: (no reason given)