XCOR Aerospace has completed a series of wind tunnel tests on the aerodynamic design of its Lynx suborbital launch vehicle.

The two-seat commercial spaceship is being developed to fly people or payloads to the edge of space and back multiple times a day.

An all-metal 1/16th scale model of the Lynx was used during the test at the US Wright-Patterson Air Base.

The Lynx project is being developed under a cooperative research and development agreement between the US Air Force and XCOR Aerospace.

AFRL Air Vehicles Directorate aerospace engineer Barry Hellman said USAF and XCOR will work together to develop the aerodynamics of the Lynx which will provide valuable knowledge to help the air force develop future access to space systems.

“While we are refining the aerodynamic design, we are making progress in fabricating the Lynx’s crew cabin, testing cryogenic pumps that will be used in the propulsion system, and continuing the test program of the liquid fuel rocket engines that will propel the Lynx to the edge of space,” Hellman said.

The Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson AFB is offering the facility in return for access to data from the subsonic wind tunnel testing.

Refined models of the vehicle will be developed and tested in a supersonic wind tunnel later in 2009. The vehicle could be launched as early as 2010