Hermeus Corporation is an American

startup company A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend ...

from

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

focused on the development of commercial hypersonic airliners.

History

The company was founded in 2018 and received an initial round of funding led by

Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, focused on early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, financial services, agriculture, healthcare and clean technology sectors. Some of its most successf ...

. In March 2021, the company signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA for research and development of high-speed aircraft. Later in 2021, the company signed a contract with the United States Air Force, securing full funding for development of its ''Quarterhorse'' hypersonic jet. On November 17th, 2022, Hermeus' ''Chimera''

turboramjet The air turborocket is a form of combined-cycle jet engine. The basic layout includes a gas generator, which produces high pressure gas, that drives a turbine/compressor assembly which compresses atmospheric air into a combustion chamber. This ...

engine performed a successful transition from

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, an ...

mode to

ramjet A ramjet, or athodyd (aero thermodynamic duct), is a form of airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to produce thrust. Since it produces no thrust when stationary (no ram air) ramjet-powered vehicles require an as ...

mode in a simulated hypersonic flight. According to Hermeus, this test is considered notable for demonstrating the speed and efficiency with which the ''Chimera'' engine was developed (21 months with a budget of $18 million).

Aircraft

The aircraft under development is planned to fly at Mach 5 with a range of . The company claims to have designed, built, and successfully tested a Mach 5 engine prototype in the span of 9 months. In August 2020, Hermeus received a $1.5 million contract from the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

to develop their proposed aircraft to enter and serve the American presidential fleet in the future and function as a possible Air Force One. The first aircraft being built is a remotely piloted prototype called ''Quarterhorse'', which as of early 2022 was projected to be flown in 2023.

Chimera engine

The ''Chimera'' engine is a turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) turboramjet engine, and is planned by Hermeus to power the ''Quarterhorse'' aircraft. ''Chimera'' uses a precooler to enhance performance in the extreme conditions that hypersonic aircraft operate in. Hermeus has announced on December 20, 2022 that the Pratt & Whitney F100 turbofan has been selected to be integrated into its larger hypersonic engine, the Chimera II. This upgraded version of the Chimera engine will be used to power the Darkhorse, a hypersonic uncrewed aerial system that is designed for defense and intelligence customers.

References

External links

* Aircraft manufacturers of the United States Aerospace companies of the United States Supersonic transports Hypersonic aircraft {{Aero-company-stub

History

Aircraft

Chimera engine

See also

References

External links