Florida Company Looks to Revive XCOR’s Lynx Spaceplane as Drone to Launch Satellites
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
PASO ROBLES, Calif. — A Florida company is looking to revive defunct XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx spaceplane as a drone that would launch small satellites into orbit before gliding back to a runway landing.
The Quetzalcóatl spaceplane is being developed by Wagner Star Industries of St. Petersburg, Fla. On Tuesday, the Paso Robles City Council voted unanimously to approve a non-binding letter of intent to work with Wagner Star and California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo to enable Quetzalcóatl flights from the Paso Robles Municipal Airport. The facility would need to be designated as a spaceport by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Members of the City Council, Planning Commission, and Airport Commission participated in a workshop in which they heard a presentation from Tartaglia Engineering and S.O. Witt and Associates. The latter company is headed by Stu Witt, the former CEO of the Mojave Air and Space Port in California where XCOR was located before it went bankrupt.
XCOR was assembling a two-seat Lynx suborbital spaceplane when it went bankrupt in November 2017. The initial version of the vehicle would have carried a pilot and a passenger on suborbital flights. XCOR also planned to develop a piloted Lynx version that would release an upper stage with satellites from a payload shroud attached to the top of the spaceplane.
The first Lynx was partially finished when XCOR shut down. A nonprofit organization named Build A Plane purchased XCOR’s assets at auction for just under $1.1 million in April 2018.
Wagner Star is in the process of converting the first Lynx vehicle into a drone so it can begin tests, according to the company’s website. The work involves removing life-support systems that had been installed to support the pilot and passenger and installing equipment for remote controlled operation.
Quetzalcóatl would take off from a runway, release its payload in suborbital space, and then glide back to where it took off. The company said it would be able to launch satellites from any commercial airport runway for $5 million per flight. A suborbital flight without a satellite launch would cost $3 million.
Quetzalcóatl is designed for rapid turnaround between flights, with up to 5 flights per week or 250 annually. The presentation listed several versions of the spaceplane.
| Version | Capabilities/Function | Motor Quantity & Thrust | Altitude |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quetzalcóatl Lynx LM1 Conversion | Testing | 4 -2500 lbf; 10,000 lbf 4 -11.121 kN; 44.482 kN | 200,000 ft 60,960 m |
| Quetzalcóatl V1A | – Suborbital 320 kg & future upgrade to LEO – Testbed for hypersonics | 6 -2500 lbf; 15,000 lbf 6 -11.121 kN; 66.723 kN | 330,000 ft 100,584 m |
| Quetzalcóatl V1B | – Capability to attach external launcher – 1,000 kg to low Earth orbit with future upgrade for medium Earth orbit | 4 -6500 lbf; 26,000 lbf 4 -28.91344 kN; 115.65 kN | 340,000 ft 103,632 m |
| Quetzalcóatl VM | -1500 kg cargo – Capability to attach external launcher for cislunar & beyond – Potential for manned version | 6 -10,000 lbf; 60,000 lbf 6 -44.482 kN; 266.893 kN | Not specified |
The presentation said Wagner Star has identified spaceflight hubs that include the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport & Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, Spaceport Cornwall in the United Kingdom, and Arnhem Space Centre in the Northern Territory of Australia.
In addition to Paso Robles, the company is also considering flying from: Mojave Air and Space Port; Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville, Fla.; Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville, Fla.; Thule Air Base in Greenland; and Johnson Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
12 responses to “Florida Company Looks to Revive XCOR’s Lynx Spaceplane as Drone to Launch Satellites”
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Even with an Aztec name and no people aboard it would be fun to see Lynx finally fly.
I looked at the picture above and all I could think of was:
“The bells! The bells….sanctuary…sanctuary..”
The Chief Designer is Quasimodo’s brother Semimodo? Paramodo? Not Bimodo…he’s a perv….
Heh.
What is the status of “build-a-plane”? It looks like their website is gone.
Wagner Star website seems a bit sparse as well.
Their page on LinkedIn is very enlightening as 3 of the 4 managers have zero aerospace experience, the owner is a golf course architect…
Add in they are going to Paso Robles, instead of Mojave or Cecil Field (they are a Florida firm) and you have to really wonder how viable they will be. It will be very interesting to watch – maybe it is time to cue Robot Model B-9.?
I was a fan of XCOR and had some hopes that their work would move forward. I don’t do LinkedIn, or twitter, or Facebook social media, so I’ll take your word for it. Disappointed. If they were operating in Saint Pete, I would have been tempted to drive an hour and a half to check them out.
“…the process of converting the first Lynx vehicle into a drone so it can begin tests
A drone for testing?? Well I have it good authority from Virgin Galactic that this just can’t be done, you gotta have a meat popsicle in the driver’s seat! I mean -come on.
</sarc>
The reason XCOR failed, and the reason Wagner Star will likely fail, is it that it is hard to develop a rocket plane. XCOR’s real strength was the engine technology and if they had used it for a simpler vertical launch, parachute recovery or vertical launch horizontal landing booster they would have likely succeeded. You build towards your strength, not your weakness…
What??
My comment was about Virgin’s stubborn stupidity in not converting an airframe to UAV for flight testing, thus taking years to recover from the accident.
XCOR ran outta money ? is all. Bigass engines for vertical launch doesn’t make sense.
The reason they ran out of money was they kept dumping it in the money pit of the Lynx instead of looking for near term revenue opportunities. And as SpaceX showed a number of small engines make up for one large one.
Great to see! (and I speak as one of those in possession of one of Tom Burbage’s “space bunnies”)