Tag Archives: turboprop

Starships

I was at Boeing Field when an interesting shape appeared on the approach. When I first saw it, I thought it looked like a Beech Starship and, sure enough, as it got closer, that was exactly what it was. The Starship is an interesting plane although it was not a success for Beech. I first saw one at Farnborough where Beech was displaying it for the first time in Europe. I think the aircraft was destined for Denmark. Since then I have come across them infrequently.

The program was not good for Beech (although they probably learned a lot about building composite aircraft) and it didn’t become the new King Air that they originally thought it would be. When the program was wrapped up, Beech went through a process of buying back airframes and having them destroyed rather than support them going forward. Not everyone was willing to give them up though. Consequently, there are a number of them still operating and a few more in museums.

I haven’t seen too many but here are the ones that I have come across over the years.

L-100

My Boeing Field visit also included a very nice surprise. The evening was drawing in quite quickly but a view off to the south showed a lot of smoke coming from something on the approach. At first I had no idea what it was but soon the familiar shape of a Hercules came into view. This was a civilian model, the L-100. It was operated by Lynden Air Cargo delivering something large!

They were heading for a ramp close to the threshold so the crew were not shy about thumping the aircraft down right on the numbers. A decent cloud of tire smoke let you know they were down and then they put the props into reverse and were soon off the runway and taxiing back to the stand. An interesting aircraft and a lucky break.

Horizon schemes

Seattle is a busy airport with plenty of operators coming through. However, the home airline is Alaska and their regional affiliate is Horizon. Consequently, both of them are very busy. Horizon operates a fleet of Bombardier Q400s. They used to have some CRJs too but these have been moved to another operator and now they are dedicated to the turboprops.

They do seem to have really gone to town in applying special liveries to some of their aircraft. These are focused on a lot of the local colleges and universities. They do paint up a lot of planes in school colors! While I was there, I got a surprising number of them passing by. Here are a few samples of the different schemes they have (along with one normal one just to show that they aren’t all specials).