what kind of aircraft are these?

after seeing a magazine picture of b52's in an unnamed arizona aircraft boneyard, i did a wiki search & from this search located the pinal airbase on googleearth. not the base in the magazine but what i found is interesting anyway.

to look it up on googleearth, the co-ordinates are:-
32*30'45.23"N x 111*19'22.40"W.
(had to improvise with the degree symbol, but you'll get it)

does anyone know the type of aircraft lined up in the pic?
there are some others lined up elsewhere on the base too.

how can i post a jpg image?

Are these the aircraft you're talking about?

They are Beechcraft Starships that were recalled by Raytheon. The location is the Marana Airpark.

craigsteffen.net...

reply to post by rfk1959

Here is a photo provided by googleearth, taken from the groud. Looks like just a bunch of commercial airliners.
Pinal Airpark is a former CIA base for companies like Air America.
Here is one I found using virtual earth.
The sun is at an angle, instead of directly overhead, like in the google photo.


[edit on 2-10-2008 by jmdewey60]

They look like a load of Beechcraft Starships to me. A number are still flying and I think were designed by Burt Rutan and one was used as a chase aircraft for the White Knight/Spaceship 1 program.

Hope this helps

Sv....out!

Those are not the sam,e aircraft as the ones in the top picture...............

www.starshipdiaries.com...

found using google

confirmed as beechcraft starships

www.starshipdiaries.com...

[edit on 2/10/08 by Harlequin]

What a tragedy. The guy who runs JetCareers.com used to fly one of those commercially as he was coming up through the ranks. What a pretty airplane.

There are only a couple of those Starships left flying, Raytheon did not want to support them anymore, so they began trying to buy them back. Rutan has one, and there is someone else who just does not want to give theirs up either. But the rest of them, are probably going to be destroyed in the not too distant future.

that's them. they're ugly & i'm glad that my private jet isn't one of them. i studied in the art of paper plane dynamics & they'd handle like old socks. absolute zero on the babe magnet scale too.....

p.s. dear uncle sam, we're looking in your backyard too. keep it clean.

reply to post by rfk1959


Those were one fo the best looking airframes ever produced IMHO

Originally posted by jmdewey60
Here is a photo provided by googleearth, taken from the groud. Looks like just a bunch of commercial airliners.

The craft are way smaller than the jumbo jets so you might not be able to see them fromt hat angle.

I've been to Pinal a few times in the past 5 years. The Starships were on the other side of the airfield in relation to the picture from the ground.They were broken up some time betweenlast summer and this past summer. A lot of the old fighters are gone, too.

now that the mystery planes have been identified, here's another one that i came across a while back. do a google image search for "boil on the rectum"......what is the first pic you get?

Why are we not using the ships yet?

reply to post by sparky8580


What do you mean? The craft and the project was terminated in 2003, since the craft just wasn't popular enough. Why do you think these craft are in the boneyard?

No one wants to use em.

reply to post by Shugo


No one wants to use them because they're as expensive as business jets are, which can get you to a destination significantly faster and possibly more comfortably.

All these planes had going for them was their sleek and unique design.

I mean if you could between this and a jet, which would you take?

Shattered OUT...