As many of you know, Ratheon/Beech has been quietly retiring all of the flying examples of the Beech Starship. Most of the retired planes are being stored in Pinal Air Park, Arizona. Here is a photo of the remaining airframes at Pinal...
I remember Dick Rutan making a comment 2 years ago in Mojave along the lines of "buy me a couple of beers and I'll tell you the real story about the Starship". From what I have since learned, it appears that the major issue with the Starship was that the original 90% scale prototype, built by Scaled, was transformed into an overweight, poorly-performing 100% production aircraft, mostly over Burt Rutan's objections.
Burt famously has a saying about how to decide whether to add something to your plane. You pick up whatever it is you are thinking of adding and throw it up in the air. If it comes down, it's too heavy...It seems that this rule was violated many times, mainly to obey fear-driven directives from regulatory bodies such as the FAA.
Robert Scherer wrote a FAQ about the Starship which explains some of the reasons why only 50+ examples were manufactured, and also why the aircraft did not sell well and acquired a reputation as a maintenance "hog".
Today only a small number of Starships are flying. The best-known is NC-51, owned by Robert Scherer, which was leased to Scaled and used as the high-altitude chase plane for the Spaceship One program.