Hypersonic aircraft startup Hermeus unveiled its Quarterhorse aircraft on Thursday at its Atlanta factory where the corporate is preparing the vehicle for its first flight test this summer.
The aircraft, dubbed Mk 1, is the second version of Quarterhorse, a high-speed test platform Hermeus is developing iteratively with a goal of demonstrating autonomous, reusable, near-hypersonic flight by 2026. The corporate’s initial vehicle, Mk 0, accomplished its ground-based test campaign last November. Mk 1 will probably be the primary to take flight.
Hermeus’ goal is to construct one test vehicle per yr, and CEO AJ Piplica told C4ISRNET that as Mk 1 prepares for flight in the following few months, refining the corporate’s processes for quickly constructing and testing aircraft is just as essential as the potential it’s going to exhibit in flight.
“That’s something that could be very different concerning the approach we’re taking to aircraft development — being this iterative and really pushing to do one aircraft per yr,” he said in a March 28 interview. “I feel this particular problem requires it. High speed airplanes and pushing the bounds of what’s been done before really requires it.”
While Quarterhorse in its multiple iterations serves as a stepping stone toward the corporate’s larger goal of developing hypersonic aircraft — which may reach speeds of Mach 5 or higher — for defense and business customers, the Pentagon is keen on using the aircraft to assist test its own systems.
The Defense Department lacks the flight test infrastructure to support the greater than 70 hypersonic development programs being pursued by the military services. Lately, the department has been working to extend its flight cadence by funding business systems like Quarterhorse and developing flying testbeds for advanced materials and components.
The Air Force Research Laboratory was an early investor in Quarterhorse, awarding Hermeus a $1.5 million contract in 2020 and one other $60 million the next year. Last November, the Defense Innovation Unit chosen the aircraft for its Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities program, or HyCAT, which goals to extend DOD’s flight testing capability.
Hermeus had planned to fly Quarterhorse in 2023, but its decision to construct Mk 0 as a ground test platform pushed that concentrate on to this yr. Piplica said the delay was disappointing, but noted that spending more time wringing out the technology and processes on the bottom has began to payoff as the corporate shifts its focus toward flight.
Following a 204-day construct process, Mk 1 will now move through ground testing in Atlanta before it’s shipped to Edwards Air Force Base in California for added tests, Piplica said.
‘Push the envelope’
The goal of the primary flight, which can take off from Edwards, is to exhibit high-speed takeoff and landing. Piplica declined to detail specific speed and altitude targets but said Mk 1 is designed for a “pretty limited” flight envelope. Once Quarterhorse achieves those objectives, the corporate will see if it may well move beyond those limits.
“We’ll push the envelope, get as much data as we are able to, and we’ll actually take technical risk in doing so,” he said. “Considered one of the important thing pieces to our approach is to actually push learning as far to the left as early as you possibly can.”
Hermeus will provide data from the flight to AFRL, DIU and other customers. The test may also inform Mk 2, which is about to fly next yr and achieve supersonic speeds.
A key difference in that vehicle is that it’s going to feature Hermeus’ Chimera II propulsion system, which incorporates Pratt & Whitney’s F100 engine. That engine is what is going to ultimately fly in Hermeus’ first hypersonic aircraft, Dark Horse.
“We’ll be flying that engine about three years sooner than we had originally planned in our roadmap,” Piplica said.
Mk 3 will follow in 2026, and Piplica said he expects that’s the timeframe wherein Quarterhorse will start supporting Defense Department testing. As for a way or when future vehicles could also be incorporated into DOD aircraft fleets, Piplica declined to invest, though he compared Mk 2 to an F-16-scale, autonomous aircraft.
“How does that play into the longer term force roadmap of the Air Force and the Joint Force writ large?” he said. “For us, it’s an aircraft on a roadmap that we’ve got to do anyway. That alignment, I feel, is admittedly powerful.”
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a give attention to the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on a few of the Defense Department’s most important acquisition, budget and policy challenges.