Lynx Flights 6-9 Months Away as XCOR Moves Staff to Midland
Lynx Mark I with strakes bonded. (Credit: XCOR)
The Midland Reporter-Telegraph has an update on XCOR’s progress on the Lynx and its move to Texas:
XCOR Aerospace has moved half of its staff to Midland as it attempts to juggle manufacturing demands back in Mojave, California with its shift to the Tall City.
The space company, which is developing the suborbital aircraft Lynx and orbital rocket engines for the United Launch Alliance project, has brought much of its ULA and administrative staffs to Midland while leaving many Lynx staff back in Mojave.
“There’s a lot going on in Mojave,” said XCOR mechanical engineer Mark Peck. “That’s one of the reasons for not moving everyone right now is because we just don’t want to take a month out of the build schedule.”
Peck estimated that XCOR is six to nine months away from the Lynx 1’s first flight. The main structure is complete and the wing mounts are being made. Once the craft is put together, the team in Mojave will do ground testing at the Mojave Air & Space Port. Peck cited the longer runway at Mojave and the ability to do extensive testing there without shutting down a commercial airport as reasons for doing the test back in California.
19 responses to “Lynx Flights 6-9 Months Away as XCOR Moves Staff to Midland”
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May 2016 will be nine months, any predictions that they will make that number?
I predict first test flight around the 4th of July.
4th of July is more realistic, but still optimistic I think.
The photo that Parabolic Arc uses does not seem like the present state of construction. Whether an up-to-date photo or not, I’d say late 2017 based on the described status. Depends on whether 1st flight is manned or unmanned, too.
If I recall, the structural requirements for the wings are not easy, and I think the supplier’s been the key item holding up the overall pace for a while. It happens when it happens. Better that they get it right. Meanwhile I think I recall that they’ve got the engine cycle with piston pumps using a closed gas look going well.
BTW ‘flight’ will presumably be preceded by roll-out tests, so I suspect we’ll see the vehicle on the runway sooner than May.
Obviously I meant “closed gas _loop_”
The Vehicle hasn’t even finished structural integration…The 787 was supposed to go from Work Packages to rollout in 9 months, it ended up taking 30 months to get to first flight, and another 24 months before the first customer delivery… While Boeing made legendary mistakes, i would be surprised if it takes less then 18 months to complete integration for Lynx….
Integration isn’t the reason for the delay, it’s manufacturing. The manufacturer had to invent a new technique to make the wing to the required specifications, that’s what forced the bulk of the delay to this point. Integration should be a smoother process than the manufacturing was, note that it didn’t take months upon months to install the chine portion of the wing.
Until all the parts are built to spec, you don’t have a chance to
complete integration. Even if the parts are exactly to spec,
you sometimes discover that some systems can’t be installed,
and special tools are needed to tighten connectors,
Sometimes you get the pieces together and a module ( Sensor,
pump, regulator) fails and you discover you have to take apart
enormous amounts of structure to get to it.
Putting together an aircraft is sort of like assembling a 3-D jigsaw puzzle.
Until the parts are done in manufacturing you can’t really say you are in the integration phase. Integration is trying to put the jigsaw puzzle together. It’s really hard. The fluids pipes will make it hard for wiring, little boxes get sick and you have to remove a lot of stuff to get to them…
Yep. You can’t put the puzzle together until the pieces are made.
Comment on the article, not on my post.
children, behave! this lurker is, as am sure many others readers are, not remotely interested in another lex talionis thread derailment (though 95% of the time both your comments are valued and read with interest!)
Though obviously disappointing, the wing manufacturing delay has probably given XCOR time to mature other subsystems (as Charles indicates) and so the time delay between Lynx Mk.I and Mk.II may well be shorted.
Remember also that XCOR’s long-term goal is an orbital RLV and that much of the technology they develop is aimed at enabling that goal. This delay may therefore be a valuable lessons learned that could actually reduce delays in future, more complex, projects.
I’m still interesting in learning more about XCOR’s flight test plans for the Lynx. XCOR has done quite a bit of flight testing but always using proven airframes (Long Eze and Velocity homebuilt aircraft). The Lynx is a new design. Things like low speed taxi testing, high speed taxi tests, initial short hop flights, etc. get more “interesting” when you’re talking about rocket propulsion. I’m sure they’ve given it a lot of thought. As a private pilot, I’m just interested in how they’re going to do it.
The manufacturers of the wing had to develop new methods for 3D printing titanium and applying composite structures. That took a while to develop and perfect, however, now that Xcor is finally receiving the parts and major structures that it needs for the Lynx, integration should progress more rapidly, barring any unforeseen bumps in the road.
Uh…no. TimR is right. It is an old photo. Things are more advanced now. And XCOR often goes long periods between updates. There are a number of developments they could easily provide updates on that would be quite interesting. But, they haven’t.
I don’t see anything here that demands my attention. Nothing ban worthy.
They need to be building two in succession. Learning from the mistakes & advances from the previous. I understand cost is an issue. But if the first is destroyed, which is a high probability, then so is the company. They become another Aramadillo Aerospace.
Doug,
Rand Simberg just posted this (bad news coming soon about XCOR) http://www.transterrestrial…
Any idea what this might be about? I rarely take Rand Simberg seriously, but this seems genuinely serious.