Walla Walla is home to many unique things. World-class wines. Walla Walla Sweets. The Marcus Whitman. A Starship.
By Andy Porter of the Union-Bulletin
A Starship?
Eric Rindal shows off the all-
glass instrument panel in the cock
pit. U-B photo by Andy Porter.
No, it's not the one Capt. Kirk flew, although the craft in question looks like it would be right at home in the 23rd century.
This is a Beechcraft Starship, a futuristic airplane that first flew in 1986, but today is all but extinct.
Of the 53 Starships built only five are still flying. Two are in Oklahoma, one is in Tennessee, one is in California and the fifth is now in Walla Walla.
Owned by local businessman Eric Rindal, that Starship landed here in January and has been turning heads ever since. Not only does it look unlike any other airplane in the sky, it even sounds different thanks to the distinct drone of its twin ``pusher'' engines.
``It's the air coming out of the exhausts and hitting the propellers,'' Rindal said about that sound last week as he stood outside the aircraft's hangar at Walla Walla Regional Airport.
A pilot since his teens, Rindal said he was in the market for a new airplane when he found the Starship for sale by its California owners.
``I've always dreamed about a Starship,'' he said. ``I was looking for a smaller (airplane) at the time, (but) this one became available, and I talked with them and it became mine.''
With its groundbreaking composite fuselage, twin-wing design, twin pusher engines and video cockpit displays the Starship was a revolutionary aircraft when it appeared.
Unfortunately, due to reasons still being debated by Starship fans, the airplane wasn't a commercial success. As a result, production was ended in 1995.
Rindal's airplane, numbered NC-50, is the 50th Starship built by Beechcraft. The one after it, NC-51, was most recently seen as the primary chase plane for SpaceShipOne, the first private rocket ship to reach space.
``For how few of them are flying, it's got a lot of admirers out there on the Internet,'' Rindal said.
Despite the plane's radical looks, pilots don't need to be graduates of Starfleet Academy to fly a Starship, according to Rindal and Robert Scherer, owner of NC-51 and author of a Web site devoted to the Starship.
The aircraft ``handles like a big Mercedes sedan and has an unbelievably smooth ride,'' Scherer writes. He and Rindal say the pusher prop design and composite fuselage also make for a quieter ride than conventional airplanes.
``The real question is, `How does it fly?''' Rindal said. ``It flies just like any other airplane. But one thing, it does handle turbulence well. Very well.''
However, according to Scherer, fate has not been kind to many of the original fleet of Starships.
Along with the five still in service, only eight others have found permanent homes after being donated to museums and a college.
Another two planes remain parked at Beech Field in Wichita, Kan., and two others, Scherer said, are listed as ``missing or on the lam.''
As for the remaining aircraft, four have been donated for composite testing by NASA, the U.S. Army and two other institutions while eight others have been purchased as ``parts planes'' by private parties.
And the last 24 Starships?
Those aircraft were leased out by Raytheon, Beechcraft's parent company, and were scrapped after the company decided the low number of aircraft in service did not justify the support costs.
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Larry Duffield wrote on Oct 21, 2007 5:40 PM:
" This was a fasinating article since I'm a want-a-be pilot for 50 yrs. now and aircraft stories always catch my eye. Wonder if Eric would ever take passengers up for a fee? I plan to send the article on to a friend in Gaston, OR that has several ventage planes and may already know about the Starship. "
Steve Singleton wrote on Oct 14, 2007 9:16 AM:
" Yesterday as I was picking up the mail, heard an unusual-sounding aircraft and looked up. Turns out it was the Starship. Fascinated, I watched it climb out of sight and then spent some time searching the internet for a twin-engined, pusher-propped aircraft with a canard wing design. Sure enough, I found the Starship in Wikipedia and learned one of the five is in WA. You can imagine my surprise with this morning's U-B cover story that it's right here. Another reason our town is unique, thanks to Mr. Rindal! "
