Identify this plane.. (1 Viewer)

[Jay H]

Saw a neato looking plane today while walking around at lunchtime. (we're right by an airport, actually right by THE airport that John F Kennedy Jr took off from before he crashed near Martha's Vineyard)..

Long fuselage, looking like it could hold about 6-8 passengers, wide skinny wings, two small canards up front and two propellors facing aft, one on each wing. Also a normal rudder and another rear wing with the elevators on the top of the rudder.

Any ideas on the make and model. Just wondering, it sounded like a giant shop vac cause it was loud and flying fairly low, like all the planes do on approach to the airport.

Jay

 

[Jack Briggs]

What kinds of markings did it have? Sounds like a plane NASA has worked on (remember, it's the National Aeronautics and Space Administration), and which I've seen video of a number of times. The canard wing, rear-facing props, etc.

 

[Jay H]

Could not see the markings cause it was almost directly overhead us and it was obscured by trees for most of the time. Doesn't look NASA but what do I know. It did look very sharp and didn't look like somebody's kit plane either.

I've tried a bunch of google searches but it's hard when I have no real good keywords to search on.

Jay

 

[Kolya]

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[Jay H]

Nope, the canards in the front I believe were a little smaller and there was a rear rudder/vertical stabilizer on it with a rear wing/elevators on the top of the stabilizer like a normal plane, however I believe it did have a row of small cockpit windows like it was a small corporate prop plane. Does anybody know a catagory of plane that would fall under, if so, then I might be able to do a Google search and try to find pictures.. Right now I can only think of propellor plane which obviously will give me a million hits...

Jay

 

[Mark R O]

Sounds like the turboprop Dick Rutan built to compete in the corp./biz jet market. The rear wings are swept with the engines mounted inboard of a set of verticals. Pretty distinctive, as most of his designs.
The plane is almost all composite materials, service ceiling is comparable to the lear/citation/beech crowd, has climb and cruise rates that embarass planes in it's peer group and is economically sane to operate. Check out some the web sites featuring his design philosophies. He is way ahead of the curve.
About six months ago he was running trials out in the desert on his new jet engine design. It's the size of a small rolled up sleeping bag, I think he said it weighs around 60 to 70 pounds, and two generate enough thrust for a 4 seater design. Anyway, he was standing with one under his arm like a watermelon while explaining it. My first thought was "Damn, I gotta get one of those!", and all the things I could bolt it on to.

 

[Kolya]

It's a jet, but a Triumph (Scaled Composites)

 

[Jay H]

Koyla, yeah, that's the shape except it was definitely a prop plane, one could easily hear it from away as it sounded a lot louder than most of the small Cessnas and private aircraft that typically fly into the airport. Perhaps they have a prop. version of that plane.. Have to check it out, at least now I have a starting point to do some searches..

Jay

 

[Philip_G]

there's another aircraft configured like the starship only a bit smaller, built by piaggio.
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I think the piaggio is more common than the starship as they're still in production and selling fairly well I think.
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[Jay H]

Philip, that could be it!! Looks very close, it has the smaller canards in the front than the Beechcraft and the same body shape. From your link, somebody from Ferrari bought one to show next to a 550M? Sheesh, now I'm curious who's in the plane, Shuey? if indeed that is the plane i saw...
Jay

 

[CharlesD]

The long EZ only has a single prop and "fighter" style canopy...

Sheesh, now I'm curious who's in the plane, Shuey?

http://www.flightdailynews.com/farnb...ss/avanti.shtm

 

[Philip_G]

Long EZ, I'll bet.

fitting 6-8 people in a long ez would be like fitting 8 clowns in a VW beetle.

 

[Philip_G]

hehe the eclipse. Neat airplane. We're supposed to get a couple of them whever they're available I think. We have a premier I in our hanger, hardly an exotic and it isn't ours :frowning:
we were rated the 50th busiest airport in the US yesterday I read
I've never seen a starship in person, but it really does sound too small for the beech, could be though. I think I read they've sold something like 1100 piaggios, I dunno what the production run on the starship was. The winglets would be the giveaway, if it had the winglets it's probably a starship.
His description of sounding "Like a shopvac" lead me the believe we're dealing with a turbine, and not a piston like you would probably find in an experimental, could you smell burning kerosene when he went over? (GREAT smell)

 

[Philip_G]

how about pilatus PC12's? see any of those on cargo or air ambulance duty? Hardly an exotic, just a personal favorite

 

[DavidY]

It's definately not a Beaver or an Otter. Kinda miss flying in those bush planes along the northern coast of BC, near Alaska.

Dave

 

[Philip_G]

the pilatus isn't especially stunning, just a solid airplane, not quite as fast as a kingair, but close. Cheap to operate also, less than $150 an hour direct operating cost I've heard. I think they've used the navajo air ambulance fleet in their print ads before.