Tech Watch

Aerospace startup gets $60M from the US Air

Force to build hypersonic passenger plane
By Valerie Insinna Thursday, Aug 5

The U.S. Air Force is investing in the Hermeus Corporation — a U.S. based aerospace
company — via a $60 million jointly funded contract that was awarded July 30, 2021.
(Hermeus)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force and several venture capital firms
are making a $60 million investment in Hermeus Corporation, a
Georgia-based startup that wants to develop the world’s first reusable
hypersonic aircraft.

The end goal: a passenger aircraft that can fly in excess of five times the
speed of sound, capable of traveling from New York to Paris in 90
minutes instead of the seven hours it takes most commercial airliners
today.

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Although the Air Force’s investment is small, relatively speaking, it could
give the service a window into the development of groundbreaking
technology and help broaden its base of potential suppliers.

“Ultimately we want to have options within the commercial aircraft

marketplace for platforms that can be modified for enduring Air Force
missions such as senior leader transport, as well as mobility,
[intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance], and possibly other
mission sets,” said Brig. Gen. Jason Lindsey, the service’s program
executive officer for presidential and executive airlift.

The contract, awarded July 30, covers a period of three years and sets
five objectives for Hermeus, the Air Force said in an Aug. 5 statement
announcing the deal.

For instance, the company is tasked with building three prototypes of its
Quarterhorse aircraft, testing a full-scale reusable hypersonic propulsion
system and providing data to the Air Force that it can use in future war-
gaming efforts.

The first Quarterhorse aircraft will be unmanned to eliminate the risk of

having a human pilot fly an experimental aircraft and allow the company
to move to flight testing earlier, Skyler Shuford, Hermeus’ chief
operations officer, said in a video posted to Twitter.

The company has already built and tested a subscale hypersonic engine
prototype and is working on a full-scale engine demonstrator, Aviation
International News reported in November 2020.

“Hermeus will be leveraging autonomous and reusable systems,

ruthlessly focused requirements, and a hardware-rich program,” the
company said in a news release. “These three strategies allow the team to
incrementally push the envelope, sometimes strategically to the point of
failure in flight test, which accelerates learning while simultaneously
improving the safety of flight test crew and the public.”

After the three year development effort, the Air Force will evaluate
Hermeus’ progress and determine next steps, the service said.

“When it comes to technology, we often hear the term ‘game-changing,’ ”

said Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle, commander of the Air Force Research

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Laboratory. “However hypersonic aircraft and propulsion systems are
truly game-changing and will revolutionize how we travel, just as
automobiles did in the last century. We are excited to be part of this
effort and to help propel this important technology.”

About Valerie Insinna

Valerie Insinna is Defense News' air warfare reporter. She previously worked the Navy/congressional
beats for Defense Daily, which followed almost three years as a staff writer for National Defense
Magazine. Prior to that, she worked as an editorial assistant for the Tokyo Shimbun’s Washington
bureau.

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