Aircraft model
BEECH 2000
Everything here is true of every aircraft of the type, not of any one aircraft.
The Beechcraft Starship: an all-composite pusher canard with twin PT6A-67A turboprops behind the wing, tip-mounted vertical fins and a variable-geometry foreplane. Burt Rutan designed the configuration, Beech certificated it in 1988 as the first all-composite pressurized aircraft to hold an FAA type certificate, and fifty-three were built before production stopped in 1995. It cruises at 335 knots at 41,000 ft, which is jet territory on turboprop fuel.
It is also the most famous commercial failure in general aviation. The composite structure made it heavy, the certification basis forced compromises that blunted the aerodynamic promise, and it cost more than a King Air 350 while carrying less. Beech later bought most of them back and destroyed them; the handful still flying are supported by a small group of owners and a specialist shop, and parts are made in ones. Buy one because it is a Starship, not because the numbers work.
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Put BEECH 2000 side by side with up to two other models.
- BEECH 2000
What it is
| Seats | 10 |
|---|---|
| Landing gear | tricycle |
| Engines | 2 |
| Engine | Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67A |
| Horsepower | 1,200 hp |
| Fuel | JetA |
| Certification basis | FAR23 |
| Production start | 1989 |
| Production end | 1995 |
| Endorsements required | complex;high-performance;pressurized/high-altitude;multi-engine |
Performance
| Cruise speed | 335 KTAS |
|---|---|
| Range | 1,576 nm |
| Service ceiling | 41,000 ft |
| Climb rate | 2,748 ft/min |
| Stall speed (Vso) | — |
| Takeoff over 50 ft | — |
| Landing over 50 ft | — |
Load and fuel
| Seats | 10 |
|---|---|
| Useful load | 4,780 lb |
| Full-fuel payload | — |
| Max takeoff weight | 14,900 lb |
| Empty weight | 10,120 lb |
| Usable fuel | — |
| Fuel burn at cruise | 150 gal/h |
Cost of ownership
| Price, low | $900,000 |
|---|---|
| Price, high | $2,200,000 |
| Prices as of | 2026 |
| Engine TBO | 3,500 h |
| Overhaul cost, low | $520,000 |
| Overhaul cost, high | $780,000 |
The fleet and its record
| Registered, all time | 53 |
|---|---|
| Active fleet | 6 |
| Median year built | 1993.0 |
| NTSB events, last 10 years | 0 |
| Fatal events, last 10 years | 0 |
| Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years | — |
| Personal-flying events per 1,000 active | — |
| Ownership transfers, last 24 months | 1 |
| Transfers per 100 active | — |
| Airworthiness directives | 5 |
| Directives, last 5 years | 0 |
| Rate confidence | none |
Peer scores6
| Peer class | Fixed wing multi-engine, turbo-prop, 2 engines, 7+ seats |
|---|---|
| Accident record | —1 |
| Severity | —2 |
| Access | —3 |
| Support | 2.8 of 104 |
| Liquidity | —5 |
These record scores treat BEECH 2000 as one design with the same aircraft registered under other names: it includes 2 aircraft registered under SAAB. Prices are not combined.
- Accident record: class median 13.13 · 24 models in class.
- Severity: class median 31.67.
- Access: class median 5,500.
- Support: class median 59.
- Liquidity: class median 22.37.
- Each of the five categories places the model within its peer class, from 0 (the worst of the class) to 10 (the best): a position among comparable models, not a grade. The overall score is the sum of the categories shown that are scored, out of 10 for each (50 when all five are); it is given only when at least 4 of the five are scored, and it can be set against another model's only when both are in the same peer class and scored on the same categories.