Beech Starship Royal Netherlands Air Force

[TomZ]

Beech Starship Royal Netherlands Air Force



In the beginning of the 1980s the Dutch Air Force was looking for a new executive transport to replace the Fokker F-27 Friendship which had been in service since the 1960s.



The choice fell on the futuristic Beech Starship, of which two were acquired in 1982. Delays in the development meant however that these were not delivered until 1988. The aircraft were used as VIP transports for high-ranking military and government officials.



In 1995 the Starship was replaced by a Gulfstream IV which was bought second hand.





Model: Beech Starship, A-model 1/144
Decals: Designed by me and printed by decals.nl

TomZ

[kitbasher]

Oh yes, very very smart indeed, Tom.

And teeny tiny scale, too.

[PR19_Kit]

Wonderful, and very possible indeed.

I've got a 1/72 Starship somewhere, I really ought to find it............

[Martin H]

Now that looks smart. 

But then ive always liked the look of the Starship. 

[Dizzyfugu]

"Smart" just fits it! Nice! 

[zenrat]

 

[Tophe]

Great!

[Spey_Phantom]

excellent build, love the idea behind it 

[NARSES2]

Fantastic build Tom 

[McColm]

Good job 

[AeroplaneDriver]

Gorgeous!! 

Always loved the Starship.  In the early 90s I was working as a Flight Instructor for a Beechcraft dealer and actually got to fly one for about 20 minutes when they were doing a sales tour. 

[kitnut617]

Every time I see someone build a model of this, I get the urge to start the one I have ----

Very nicely done Tom 

[PR19_Kit]

For some technical reason all Starships were mostly painted white, a bit like Concordes, but luckily this is WhiffWorld...... 

[AeroplaneDriver]

It was because of the composite structure's issue with heat.  A really fascination aircraft but it's construction was it's undoing.

From what I remember it was basically woven as a compete fuselage from carbon fibre.  Then the windows and door and other openings were cut out. For the door the section cut out became the actual door.  Which seems great until a custom needed a new replacement door. Since each door was minutely different and perfectly matched to the airframe, mass producing a replacement door that fit well enough was apparently quite the challenge.  One of many it ran into. 

Still a gorgeous aircraft though and one I thought flew very nicely compared to the King Air it was intended to replace.  Though the caveat there is that at the time I had about 15 hours of King Air time. 

Speaking of King Airs this build has me wondering how one would look as an alternative RC-12 for the Recce GB...?   Hmmmm....

[scooter]

Didn't the prototype have radar reflectivity problems?  I swear I thought I'd read in Flying Magazine, back in the day, that it had next to no signature on radar.