By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
Later this year, an American aerospace startup backed by a multi-year Pentagon contract will conduct a crucial test of what it hopes will turn into a hypersonic drone.
Hermeus is an Atlanta-based company created to, in its words, “radically accelerate air travel by delivering hypersonic aircraft.” At the same time, it’s developing reusable hypersonic aircraft under a contract from the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).
Hermeus will take its commercial prototype, dubbed the Quarterhorse, and conduct a supersonic flight test with speeds up to Mach 2.5. According to Next Big Future, it’s part of a DIU program to use commercial flight capabilities to expand the Pentagon’s high-speed flight test capacity.
In the test flight, the Quarterhorse will use a precooled Pratt & Whitney F100 engine. A later edition of the drone will use the Hermeus Chimera engine, which is said to be capable of reaching speeds up to Mach 5. The Chimera uses what is known as a turbine-based combined cycle propulsion system. It allows the drone to use a turbojet for takeoff and landing, while using a ramjet to transition to hypersonic speeds.
Hermeus plans to use the Quarterhorse flight test to help develop Darkhorse, which is described as a multi-mission hypersonic unscrewed aerial system (UAS).
Meanwhile, another company will test a novel new engine that could power hypersonic drones and other aircraft.
Venus Aerospace, along with Velontra, has been developing the VDR2, which combines the thrust and efficiency of a rotating detonation rocket engine with the high efficiency cruise of a ramjet. Venus will test the engine in its hypersonic drone sometime this year.
Eventually, the company hopes that aircraft using the VDR2 could reach Mach 6 and an altitude of 170,000 feet.
For several years, Pentagon officials have said that when it comes to hypersonic weapons, the US trails Russia and China. In November, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared on national television to boast that Moscow’s forces had used a new hypersonic missile in the war against Ukraine.
Last March, the US Air Force conducted what was expected to be the final test of the hypersonic Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, built by Lockheed Martin. But it didn’t receive any funding in 2025. The Pentagon also has a Hypersonic Attack Cruise missile program, which received more than a half billion dollars in the current defense budget.
