Free Republic

Hypersonic flight startup Hermeus has publicly unveiled its first flyable aircraft, called the Quarterhorse Mk 1. A previous version, Quarterhorse Mk.0, was successfully tested on the ground in January 2024. Hermeus Via X: Mk 1 is our second fully-integrated vehicle built in just the past year. This rate of iteration highlights the new standard Hermeus has set for the pace of aircraft development: One aircraft per year. Each aircraft in the Quarterhorse program progressively increases in complexity, building on the learnings of prior builds. The new model is not yet capable of reaching hypersonic speeds. However, the uncrewed experimental aircraft...

For impatient travelers, the next wave of air transportation could be a game-changer. Aerospace company Hermeus Corporation recently announced that it has obtained funding to pursue development of a plane that could travel five times faster than the speed of sound, getting passengers from New York to London in just 90 minutes. But it won't be a cheap flight, and the idea isn't without some baggage. The venture, which was founded by former employees of private space travel companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, is seeking to craft a plane that can travel at Mach 5...