Unique model for passenger transport to space comes to Aviodrome

Lelystad, Oct. 8, 2020 - Visitors to Aviodrome may soon come face to face with a life-size space plane. This is because the aviation museum may add a mockup of the Lynx space plane to its collection. This aircraft is the ultimate example of a combination between aerospace and space travel and will be on display at the museum in Lelystad starting this weekend.

The Lynx is the first full-scale commercial spacecraft on display at Aviodrome. This so-called mockup, a life-size model of the aircraft, totals nine meters in length and 6.5 meters in width. Visitors can only admire the aircraft from the outside, as the interior and engine have not been recreated.

In 2008, the company SXC (Space Expedition Curaçao) was founded in the Netherlands to organize flights from Curaçao to space with the Lynx. For this purpose, the model on display at Aviodrome starting this weekend was developed. The Lynx was specially designed to take ordinary people into space. For about $100,000, interested parties could join as passengers. During the flight, however, the passenger would remain seated alone: floating weightlessly through the cabin was out of the question. The aircraft had room for two people: a pilot and a passenger.

GroundbreakingIn 2014, SXC became part of US-based XCOR Aerospace under the name XCOR Space Expedition. Three years later, however, development of the Lynx went off the rails as XCOR Aerospace went bankrupt. Just before that, the aircraft was on loan to the National Military Museum (NMM). "The aircraft never reached space," says Zeholy Pronk, president of the National Space Museum, which is located at Aviodrome Aviation Museum. "A prototype of it was once made, but unfortunately they never got to the point where there was actually an aerospace-worthy one. Nor was there ever a test flight."

According to Pronk, the aircraft was nevertheless a groundbreaking design: "We could really say that it was one of the founding fathers of contemporary commercial spaceflight." The National Space Museum had long been interested in the arrival of the Lynx. "Partly because of the symbolic connection between aviation and space. It is very nice that it finally worked out and that we can now give the Lynx a prominent place in the museum," Pronk said.

Space Academy XLThe Lynx will be on display for the first time during Space Academy XL. During this event, which will take place at Aviodrome from October 10 to 25, visitors will take a step closer to visiting space. Even after the fall break, the Lynx will remain on display at Aviodrome.