Hermeus to fly hypersonic small aircraft next year

摘要

Aerospace startup Hermeus, which landed a U.S. Air Force contract for the initial development of a hypersonic business jet for presidential travel, has signed a $60 million follow-up partnership agreement with the service to flight test its Quarter-horse unmanned small-sized vehicle as early as next year as it progresses toward completion of a full-scale passenger aircraft by the end of the decade.Anticipated to fly by the end of 2022, Quarterhorse will be used to validate Hermeus's turbine-based combined cycle (TBBC) engine that is based on the GE J85. The aircraft will test speeds between Mach 3 and Mach 5. Hermeus has retained a half-dozen more GE J85S as it proceeds with its development work and "we now have all the turbojet engines we need to complete our first aircraft development program with an iterative,hardware-rich approach."Hermeus, which will build Quarter-horse at its recently established factory in Atlanta, has already cut metal for the vehicle. Company executives said by using an autonomous vehicle, Hermeus is derisk-ing this stage of the flight testing.Plans call to follow with a midsize vehicle that will be used for flight testing for cargo purposes around 2025 that will have longer range and more capable environmental control. That vehicle will be used to help provide a basis for MRO needs before the company proceeds to a passenger version. The planned 20-seat passenger aircraft is targeted for FAA certification in 2029.