The startup Hermeus is rapidly developing a hypersonic plane. They have begun testing their proprietary precooler technology with the Pratt & Whitney F100 engine. This video highlights some of our favorite camera angles from testing.
What’s a precooler and why are they testing it? The Hermeus precooler increases the maximum speed of the turbine engine by lowering the temperature of incoming air. This is the first major propulsion milestone for their next aircraft, Quarterhorse Mk 2, which will utilize this engine configuration and fly at supersonic speeds.
Quarterhorse Mk 2 will fly with this precooler-F100 engine combination and be capable of hitting speeds greater than Mach 2.5. The entire Chimera engine, which includes a ramjet, will power Hermeus’ following aircraft, Quarterhorse Mk 3. This aircraft will reach speeds close to Mach 4 and pave the way for future Hermeus aircraft that will fly at hypersonic speeds.
At low speeds, Chimera is in turbojet mode – just like any jet aircraft. At higher speeds, Chimera bypasses the incoming air around the turbojet and the ramjet takes over completely. Chimera utilizes readily available off-the-shelf gas turbine engines – saving Hermeus billions of dollars’ worth of development and years of schedule.
Most hypersonic platforms are powered by a rocket engine – which limits operability, maintainability, and reliability.
Quarterhorse Development Timeline:
Mk 1: The first flyable version of Quarterhorse, Mk 1, is set for flight tests later in 2024. These tests will focus on high-speed takeoffs and landings
Mk 2: Scheduled for 2025, Mk 2 will be powered by a Pratt & Whitney F100 engine, enabling supersonic flight. This version will serve as a precursor to the full hypersonic capabilities planned for future iterations
Mk 3: Expected to be developed by 2026, Mk 3 will incorporate Hermeus’ Chimera II propulsion system, which includes a modified F100 engine. This version aims to achieve speeds faster than Mach 3.3, supporting Defense Department testing
Darkhorse Development Timeline:
Following the Quarterhorse program, Hermeus plans to develop Darkhorse, an uncrewed hypersonic system intended for mass production for military applications. The timeline for Darkhorse is set to follow the completion of the Quarterhorse Mk 3.
After the Darkhorse drones, the plan is create the hypersonic passenger jet, Halcyon.
Hermeus’ approach involves building one test vehicle per year, refining processes, and pushing technological boundaries to achieve hypersonic flight capabilities.
“Airbreathing engines are critical to Hermeus’ goal of operationalizing hypersonic aircraft,” said Hermeus Co-Founder and Chief Technologist, Glenn Case. “By making a full-range, air-breathing hypersonic engine, Hermeus is setting the stage for aircraft that are capable of taking off from a regular runway and accelerating up to hypersonic speeds. No rockets or motherships required.”
The precooler is part of their larger turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) engine. Their TBCC engine, named Chimera, is a full-range, air-breathing hypersonic engine combining a turbine with a ramjet. At low speeds Chimera operates in turbine mode with the F100 engine, while at higher speeds the engine transitions to ramjet mode. The precooler helps bridge the gap between these two modes of operations by increasing the performance of the turbine.
Darkhorse will be a multi-mission hypersonic UAS (uncrewed aerial system) designed for defense and national security missions.
Like Quarterhorse, Darkhorse will be powered by a Hermeus-developed turbine-based combined cycle engine. This version of Chimera is significantly more powerful as it integrates the Pratt & Whitney F100.
Hypersonic aircraft represent a major step change in defense technology, offering unprecedented speed, altitude, and maneuverability. These attributes allow Darkhorse to operate responsively in contested environments.
Halcyon will be a passenger aircraft capable of accelerating 125+ trans-oceanic routes at hypersonic speeds – five times faster than any commercial aircraft today.
More than 500,000 business class passengers travel from New York to London each year. Flying at Mach 5 would save them six hours on a one-way trip. That’s three million hours saved per year – on just one route, in just one year.
Historically, accelerating transportation networks has resulted in massive social and economic growth. Hypersonic travel has the potential to add more than $4 trillion of global GDP growth per year by radically accelerating the speed of commerce and cultural exchange.
Mach 5+ aircraft solve urgent national security challenges.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
How is this different to Reaction Engines’ attempt at the same game?
I get paid over 💵200$💵 per hour working from home with 2 kids at home. I never thought I’d be able to do it but my best friend earns over 💵10k💵 a month doing this and she convinced me to try. The potential with this is endless. Heres what I’ve been doing..
🙂 AND GOOD LUCK.:)
HERE====)> https://aboutguidance51.blogspot.com/
My guess is that the patents owned by RE won’t need to be licensed.
Airbreathing sucks for long distance flight. Say you want to travel 12000km, with typical near-hypersonic L/D of 5 you need to in energy terms effectively ‘lift’ your craft to about 2400km altitude 24MJ/kg and at only ~50% efficiency that means about 1kg of methane fuel fuel per kg of plane, but more than 10x that amount per kg of payload.
That’s a ridiculously high fuel bill.
Compare to Starship that is probably close to 5kg of methane per kg of payload (plus perhaps 4x that in cheap LOX) anywhere on the planet in 60 minutes, and its clear that high speed airbreathing is a road to nowhere.
Indeed, with an affordable starship, anything over an unknown distance (we don’t know the cost of starship yet) will cheaper to fly sub orbital.
What a hypersonic jet can do is extend that yet undetermined distance for affordable jet travel.
Regardless of economics you can’t integrate Starships on Airports. Populated areas are incompatible with the thundering reverberations of the vehicle.
You would have to fly to a dedicated Starship location (off coast or in middle of nowhere). Spoke spoke model is more attractive to airlines and travel agencies (than Hub spoke). Supersonic airplanes offer the first.
The risk is too high in first decade to risk offering seats to commercial passengers on antipodal Starship flights.
Love this company.
Exciting stuff.
I like how they don’t have 50 projects going on, they are laser focused on their roadmap, and are marching towards the hypersonic finish line.
Other then the pre-cooling, it sounds pretty similar to the Blackbird.
So many challenges heat, (friction)
Aircraft frame has to be strong but yet flexible, outer skin cannot be just able to withstand an incredible amount of heat from the friction it must also be able to stretch. The sr-71 was made with titanium and even this material was hard to deal with all panels had to be welded and most experienced welders know that is something you’re not doing in your garage. Also there is all the hoses that has clamps on both ends. Which at the. Speeds will swell and contrast significantly.
I’ve actually been told by experienced welders that titanium is pretty nice to weld if you’re doing TIG. My own experience with it was limited to machining and lathe work, though, where it’s a lot like 300 series stainless, except for the threat of your swarf catching fire.
Of course, these days working with it has the advantage of a lot of existing experience, the people building the SR-71 were dealing with it when it was cutting edge, and they had to learn things we have the advantage of knowing, like don’t use cadmium based products around it.
sad
Going hypersonic is SO Much more complicated then say just going supersonic. The fluidic nature of air changes about 2000mph+It’s VERY difficult using air as part of the combustion chemistry faster then that. (For the record, the X-15 of the late 1950’s early 1960’s was rocket powered, and did not use an air breathing engine) But who doesn’t think the X-15 was so cool. Hello…? But engines that suck in air, beyond about 2300mph create a whole new dynamic. First, “air” does not play well with our “familiar” technologies beyond a certain speed. The reason is simple and predictable (predictable is good). Air becomes less a fuel, and more a “wall”. What do you do when you come against a wall? You go threw it or around it.
But this is a wall you can’t go around. So you eat it. (figuratively speaking). Actually literally too. How well you do that is the conundrum of hypersonic propulsion. Perhaps we need to look at this in a new mindset like, say rocket torpedoes. These can go hundreds of mph underwater. They have a “probe” in the nose that vibrates, and creates an air bubble threw cavitation that surrounds the torpedo. In effect, it flies threw the air, underwater. I hear their very noisy. Not that anyone could get out of their way, once targeted.
Game changing technology needs to be applied to hypersonic tech. Honestly, did you think a torpedo could go 500mph? Hey, look it up.