XCOR today took delivery of the cockpit assembly of its Lynx suborbital space plane.
The competition heats up: XCOR today took delivery of the cockpit assembly of its Lynx suborbital space plane.
They have said they will begin flight tests later this summer, followed by tourist suborbital flights at some point thereafter.
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The competition heats up: XCOR today took delivery of the cockpit assembly of its Lynx suborbital space plane.
They have said they will begin flight tests later this summer, followed by tourist suborbital flights at some point thereafter.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I remember you’ve mentioned on The Space Show your skepticism of their squared canopy panels. Looking at the photo in your link and XCOR’s picture below, it appears there will be a rounded, pressurized, inner canopy beneath those squared exterior panels.
http://xcor.com/press/2008/images/08-03-20_lynx_ground_v02.jpg
Yes, you are correct. My question now is why the interior and exterior layers? Also, even if the exterior squared windows are not essential for maintaining pressure, extensive engineering data still shows they fail. Would you want your exterior panels to fail on a suborbital flight?
I definitely would like to keep them in place during the mach-2 or mach-3 stage of its return. However, the Concorde had an outer canopy attached to the nose, that articulated downward during takeoff and landings. It also had squared window panels, so perhaps the dynamics are different in this situation – as opposed to a series of squared windows along the entire length of an early De Havilland Comet.
http://www.joelsilverman.com/data/photos/26_1DSC_0067_Concorde_SST.jpg
And I just remembered, the earlier mach-3 XB-70 Valkyrie bomber had a canopy arrangement very similar to the Concorde.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lw5_Asy71xY/Ua7ujQDv23I/AAAAAAAABIk/MhY1klzVwEQ/s1600/XB-70-Valkyrie+1.jpg
It may be more cost effective to build a canopy with flat windows than one big curved bubble of glass like in an F-16. The other reason may be a safety related one in which if something poked a hole in a bubble of glass, it could lead to a more catastrophic type of failure than smaller flat windows separated by a strong metal frame.
If you notice that in both the Vulkyrie Bomber and its eventual child the Concord the windows are mounted directly into a frame structure.
On the Comet the windows were mounted into just the sheet metal skin. The Comet was one of the first passenger planes to use a stressed skin system for structural strength instead of a heavier frame type system.
All the stresses of flight were transmitted through the skin. When those stresses needed to go around a window they tended to collect and increase their effect at the squared off corners of the windows causing stress fractures and eventually the windows just fell out.
Why the Lynx has what looks to be a two layer canopy system I have no idea. Not a clue.
The bubble type canopy they show in the press release would do all they need a window or canopy system to do.
It will only be flying at any high speeds when the atmosphere is getting thin or not even there.
Anything they hit on the way up will crash through both layers. Anything they hit in space will pretty much do the same. Anything they hit on the way down will be just like any other typical bird strike.
I think the artists concept picture might be a little misleading from the eventual final ship.
Now those might be windows they bolt on for when they attach that large cargo/science pod onto the roof. If the pod over hung the cockpit and matted right to the top of the cockpit that would give it possibly 3 to 4 extra feet of room to use instead of having a pod that starts right after the cockpit.