Hermeus Project Latest Advancements The Hermeus Project is a hypersonic endeavour that JF has been following over the last few years. This article serves as an update to this project. JF carried a previous article stating that the 'Quarterhorse' was supposed to have its first flight in 2022. The Hermeus 'Quarterhorse' is the small hypersonic vehicle is expected prove validation of the turbine-based combined cycle (TBBC) engine that is based on the General Electric J85.
Presently they are working on the Iron Bird of the Quarterhorse... Quarterhorse Mk 0. This is the first one of four in testing the Quarterhorse. Hermeus reports that they concluded the first set of tests with the Iron Bird. The company managed to design and test the Iron Bird in six months and completed test objectives within 37 days. The aircraft will be testing the Chimera engine which is designed for speeds approaching Mach 4. The Iron bird though is a non-flying prototype being used to test sub systems and of course with each test bird the program will advance further.
The research that the Hermeus project is doing is paving the way with data points and real world testing that will be benchmarks for future civil and military hypersonic aircraft. The U.S Air Force has already awarded a few contracts to Hermeus. MK 1 is the next Quarterhorse test vehicle in the works and this will be the first one to actually fly. It is anticipated to fly later this year with no definitive date set. MK 2 will focus on testing autonomous supersonic flight; while MK 3 will be the demonstrator to fly from supersonic to hypersonic which will employ transition from turbojet to ramjet configurations. Bare in mind that the Hermeus Quarterhorse program is the subscale testing for the larger Darkhorse and perhaps further down the line Halcyon business jet/passenger airliner. For more information: Hermeus 1954 Airport Rd Atlanta, Georgia 30341 www.hermeus.com ***
