 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 2018 |
| Founder | AJ Piplica (CEO) Skyler Shuford (COO) Glenn Case (CTO) Mike Smayda (CPO) |
| Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia |
Number of locations | 2 |
| Website | hermeus |
Hermeus Corporation is an Americanstartup company designing ahypersonic airliner.
The company was founded in 2018[1] with initial funding led byKhosla Ventures.[2]
In March 2022, the company raised a $100 million series B investment round led bySam Altman.[3] Other investors includedFounders Fund,In-Q-Tel, and existing investors Khosla Ventures,Canaan Partners, and Bling Capital.
The aircraft under development is planned to fly at Mach 5 with a range of 4,600 miles (7,400 km).[4] The company claims to have designed, built, and successfully tested a Mach 5 engine prototype in only 9 months.[5] In August 2020, Hermeus received a $1.5 million contract from theUnited States Air Force to develop their proposed aircraft and function as a possibleAir Force One.[6]
They are building the supersonic Quarterhorse Mk 2 with an advanced engine based on thePratt & Whitney F100. Quarterhorse Mk 2 is expected to hit speeds greater than Mach 2.5.
The engine to be used in the Hermeus aircraft adds a precooler to a standardPratt & Whitney F100[clarification needed]. Theprecooler lowers the temperature of incoming air, preventing the melting of engine parts and allowing the engine to be more efficient.[7]
The next-generation Chimera engine includes aramjet, which was successfully tested in November 2022.[8] It will power the Quarterhorse Mk 3, which will reach speeds close to Mach. Until reaching sufficient speed, Chimera routes incoming air around theturbojet and the ramjet takes over.[9][8]
Hermeus is initially focused on the Quarterhorse design program:[10][11]
The Quarterhorse development schedule has four stages:[12]
Next comes Darkhorse, an uncrewed hypersonic military jet intended for mass production. After Darkhorse, the plan is to create Halcyon, a hypersonic passenger jet.[10]
Chimera is a pre-cooled, full-range, air-breathing, turbine combined cycle (TBCC) hypersonic engine combining a pre-cooled turbine with aramjet. At low speeds Chimera operates as a turbine, while at higher speeds the engine transitions to ramjet mode. The precooler helps bridge the gap between these modes increasing the performance of the turbine.[10] Chimera begins to bypass the incoming air around the turbojet at around Mach 3, and the ramjet takes over completely. Hermeus demonstrated achieving this in tests in November 2022.[13]
In 2021, Hermeus secured $60 million in funding from the U.S. Air Force and from venture capital sources to support the Quarterhorse flight test program. A non-flying Quarterhorse MK 0 prototype will be used to validate systems including electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, avionics, steering and propulsion.[14] In August 2024, Hermeus completed low-speed taxi tests.[15] The testing was completed in 37 days from the time the MK 0 prototype arrived at the test facility.[16]
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