GOV/MIL Air Force To Fund, Test Unmanned Hypersonic Plane

[Housecarl]

Hummmm......Interesting that they're saying the powerplant is based on the old GE J85 turbojet engine.........

Posted for fair use.....

Air Force To Fund, Test Unmanned Hypersonic Plane - Breaking Defense

"There are so many building block technologies that need to happen first. So, it’s a bit silly, but the appeal of the theoretical end result is undeniable," says Teal Group's Richard Aboulafia.

breakingdefense.com

• Air Warfare

Air Force To Fund, Test Unmanned Hypersonic Plane
"There are so many building block technologies that need to happen first. So, it’s a bit silly, but the appeal of the theoretical end result is undeniable," says Teal Group's Richard Aboulafia.

By Theresa Hitchens on August 05, 2021 at 10:16 AM

Concept art of a Hermeus Corp hypersonic design the Air Force wants to test. (Hermeus)

WASHINGTON: The Air Force will flight test a first-of-its-kind hypersonic autonomous aircraft, under a contract with Atlanta-based startup Hermeus Hypersonic, the service announced today.


The aircraft, called Quarterhorse, is designed to test the company’s “turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) engine, based around the GE J85 turbojet engine,” according to a company press release. “By the end of the flight test campaign, Quarterhorse will be the fastest reusable aircraft in the world and the first of its kind to fly a TBCC engine.”


The plane is being designed to fly at five times the speed of sound, which would mean traveling from New York to Paris would only take 90 minutes, compared to the roughly seven and a half hours it takes today.


The company will receive a $60 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) phase 2 contract, brokered by the Air Force’s innovation hub, AFWERX. The contract is being funded by “Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and various venture capital sources,” according to the service’s press release.


The AFLCMC directorate is responsible for Air Force One, the presidential jet.


The company last August was granted a smaller contract under an Other Transaction For Prototype Agreement Direct to Phase II contract through AFWERX, after Hermeus successfully tested a Mach 5 engine prototype in February 2020.


“The engagement with Hermeus is part of a larger effort led by the directorate to fuel the burgeoning commercial resurgence of high speed passenger travel, and has been dubbed the ‘Vector Initiative’,” the release explains. “The initiative aims to partner with commercial sector leaders to accelerate their development and, as a byproduct, advance enabling technologies that could provide the Air Force options for a variety of missions.”


The Air Force is following a similar model in trying to prime the commercial pump for “flying cars” — electronic vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles — under the Agility Prime program, as a way for the military to then leverage both the technology and cost savings. AFWERX awarded a first flight-worthiness certification under that program on Dec. 10 to Joby Aviation, based in Santa Cruz, Calif., for its four-person “taxi” prototype.

While its a cool concept, at least one long-time aviation expert isn’t convinced we’ll see a Mach 5 Air Force One anytime soon.


“$60 million for this project is roughly akin to moving a centimeter in a journey around the world,” said Teal Group’s Richard Aboulafia in an email. “There are so many building block technologies that need to happen first. So, it’s a bit silly, but the appeal of the theoretical end result is undeniable.”

 

[TerryK]

A regular turbojet engine can not go mach 5. It can get up to supersonic but soon there after it has to have some kind of air bypass that bypasses the turbines and operates either as a ramjet or scramjet (supersonic combustion) at high mach speeds.

 

[Housecarl]

A regular turbojet engine can not go mach 5. It can get up to supersonic but soon there after it has to have some kind of air bypass that bypasses the turbines and operates either as a ramjet or scramjet (supersonic combustion) at high mach speeds.

Turbine-based combined cycle engine

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331809856/figure/fig1/AS:873460012179458@1585260503594/Turbine-based-combined-cycle-engine.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZsbLGGXQAQc0mC.jpg

 

[TerryK]

Interesting. Here is a pdf from U of Colorado that describes the problems associated with transition from turbojet to ramjet and the advantages of under the fusalage flow versus axial flow.

https://www.colorado.edu/faculty/kantha/sites/default/files/attached-files/russell.pdf

The article is over 10 years old and basically describes the old SR71 issues, and doesn't go into ramjet to scramjet transition problems. It talks about them like they are unsolvable, but obviously they can and have been at least partially solved enough to produce prototypes.
It explains the process of going from subsonic compressed air for the ramjet, to rechanging the inlet configuration back to allow supersonic air into the engine, but doesn't talk about the combustion and nozzle geometry issues. Only the inlet config issues that have already been solved with the SR71 J58.

Basically I still want to see the geometry involves in the configuration of scramjet portion.
Bet it will be a while before that appears in Pop Sci

 

[Housecarl]

Posted for fair use......

Hermeus rolls out new uncrewed aircraft as company edges toward goal of hypersonic flight - Breaking Defense

The Atlanta-based startup intends to pitch the next, supersonic iteration of the Quarterhorse, set to roll out in 2025, to the Pentagon as its first product.

breakingdefense.com

BUSINESS BEAT

• AIR WARFARE, PENTAGON

Hermeus rolls out new uncrewed aircraft as company edges toward goal of hypersonic flight​

The Atlanta-based startup intends to pitch the next, supersonic iteration of the Quarterhorse, set to roll out in 2025, to the Pentagon as its first product.​

By VALERIE INSINNA on March 28, 2024 at 5:00 PM

The Hermeus Quarterhorse Mk 1 unmanned aircraft on display at a Hermeus facility. (Hermeus)
WASHINGTON — Hermeus unveiled its new high-speed, jet-powered Quarterhorse Mk 1 aircraft today, taking another small step toward the Atlanta-based startup’s goal of producing the world’s first reusable hypersonic plane.

The uncrewed Mk 1 aircraft is set to become the first Hermeus-produced aircraft to take to the skies during flight tests at Edwards Air Force base scheduled later this year, which are aimed at proving it can safely conduct high-speed take off and landings.

Hermeus ultimately seeks to build two types of mass-produced hypersonic aircraft: a multi-mission drone for the defense market called Darkhorse and a passenger plane known as Halcyon capable of flying from New York to London in 90 minutes.

But for now, as the company debuts the Quarterhorse Mk 1, it also intends to pitch the next iteration of the Quarterhorse, a faster supersonic Mk 2 version set to roll out in 2025, to the Pentagon as its first product.

“We’re building a capability that certainly fill some gaps, and I think having an operational capability earlier than Darkhorse — like a couple years earlier — really helps [the Pentagon],” said Hermeus founder and CEO AJ Piplica in an interview with Breaking Defense.

Piplica declined to comment on whether Hermeus will propose the Quarterhorse Mk 2 for the Pentagon’s Replicator program, which is seeking to field thousands of unmanned systems over two years, or the Air Force’s collaborative combat aircraft program that aims to build autonomous drone wingmen that will be commanded by fighter pilots. (Hermeus is not among the first five primes participating in the early stages of the Air Force’s collaborative combat aircraft project.)

However, Hermeus views the Quarterhorse Mk 2 — billed by the company as “the world’s first purpose-built high-Mach drone” — as a unique offering among the systems currently operated by the United States military like the RQ-4 Global Hawk and MQ-9 Reaper, which operate at subsonic speeds.

Hermeus’s foray into high-speed unmanned aircraft isn’t the only one. Recently, fellow startup Anduril unveiled a high subsonic rocket-powered platform to act as an air defense system, and higher-flying Stratolaunch plans to conduct its own test flight of a recoverable hypersonic vehicle later this year.

RELATED: Anduril unveils VTOL Roadrunner-Munition for aerial defense, one US customer buying in

A path to hypersonic speeds​

As a bridge to hypersonic aircraft that travel in speeds in excess of Mach 5, the company plans on constructing four Quarterhorse test vehicles, culminating in the Mk 3 aircraft that Hermeus executives say will fly faster than the Mach 3.3 speeds clocked by the legendary SR-71 spyplane built by Lockheed Martin.

In parallel, Hermeus is developing its Chimera II propulsion system that will be tested aboard the Quarterhorse Mk 3 and produced en masse for Darkhorse. The Chimera II uses a Pratt & Whitney F100 engine as its base, but replaces the afterburner with a ramjet afterburner, and modifies the engine with a precooler and bypass system manufactured in house, Piplica said.

The Mk 1 aircraft, powered by a General Electric J85 engine and operated by remote control, is a subsonic craft and will be put through subsystems, ground station, operations, and human factors testing before making its first flight later this year.

Piplica acknowledged Hermeus had initially hoped to get a plane off the ground in 2023, but said the company “reframed” its plans to do additional testing with its Quarterhorse Mk 0, which completed remote taxi tests in November.

For the Mk 1 aircraft, “its requirements were set in September of last year, and it’s being unveiled today about 200 days later,” Piplica said. “It’s a pace of development we haven’t seen in this country for a very long time.”

Next year’s Mk 2 aircraft will transition to the F100 engine used by the F-15 and F-16, allowing the aircraft to fly at supersonic speeds. The engine will be modified with the Hermeus-built precooler, which is designed to allow the engine to reach higher speeds than what the F100 had previously accomplished, Piplica said, but a full-up Chimera II engine will not be installed in Quarterhorse until Mk 3.

Piplica said Hermeus could manufacture about “a dozen or so” Mk 2 drones per year in its current facility in Atlanta, but will have to expand if it gets a “clear demand signal” that the Defense Department wants to buy more. In the meantime, the company is “building up the supply chain relationships” that will be necessary to start producing Mk 2 drones if the Pentagon signs on as a customer.

The Defense Department has not publicly revealed a program of record for a hypersonic aircraft, but has made several investments in Hermeus as it develops Quarterhorse.

The Air Force in 2021 awarded Hermeus a three-year, $60 million jointly funded contract to build and test three Quarterhorse aircraft, as well as to flight test a reusable hypersonic propulsion system. At the time, Air Force leaders said a commercial-built hypersonic aircraft could have viability for the US military as a transport or surveillance plane.

Under a contract inked last November with the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, the Quarterhorse will take part in tests for DIU’s Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities (HyCAT) initiative, which seeks to boost the department’s high-speed flight test capacity.

RTX’s venture capital arm announced in 2022 that it would invest an undisclosed amount in Hermeus.

The Defense Department is interested in reusable hypersonic aircraft, as they would allow the US military to conduct surveillance and strike missions much faster than its current bomber fleet, said James Weber, the department’s principal director for hypersonics, during a congressional hearing earlier this month.

However, “there’s a lot of work that we have to do in the science and technology world to address the materials and structures for reusable hypersonic aircraft,” he said.

 

[OldArcher]

Too little, too late. The Deep State is winning for our enemies…

OA

 

[Kathy in FL]

Air traffic control is going to be interesting for any number of hypersonic planes flying in the same airspace.

 

[et2]

They’re way past this technology.

 

[tanstaafl]

Hopefully (assuming no more delays) in June 2024 there will be an unmanned orbital test of a new mini-shuttle which will eventually operate as a manned spacecraft. Anything going to and coming back from orbit is pretty much by definition a hypersonic vehicle.

"Dream Chaser is an American reusable lifting-body spaceplane developed by Sierra Space. ... The crewed variant is planned to carry up to seven people and cargo to and from low Earth orbit."

SNC Demo-1 - Wikipedia

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