QUARTERHORSE: USAF'S NEXT HYPERSONIC PLANE

Goal:  Break the Airspeed Record

                                                            Source:  Hermeus

Successor to the Famous SR-71 Blackbird

The US Air Force and Atlanta-based aviation company Hermeus are developing a next generation hypersonic aircraft for both military and commercial use, that's designed to break the world airspeed record.  Here are the key facts:

• With a $60 million USAF contract, Hermeus is developing a Mach 5 plus hypersonic plane for both military and commercial passenger travel applications
• Hermeus is working on 3 concept hypersonic planes including Quarterhorse
• Quarterhouse is a remotely piloted high-speed aircraft designed to sprint short distances at Mach 4 & Mach 5 speeds with a turbojet/ramjet propulsion system
• Quarterhorse is powered by two breakthrough engines:  a turbojet engine that reaches Mach 3 (2,000 mph) and a ramjet engine that takes over and transitions to Mach 5 plus or 3,850 mph
• Quarterhorse's dual engine, hypersonic system is undergoing tests that so far are successful and have demonstrated that it can transition from turbojet Mach 3 performance to ramjet Mach 5 performance, which is a major milestone for hypersonic flight
• The engines will need to also transition back to turbojet performance in order to replace the USAF SR-71 hypersonic aircraft because they have to handle subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic speeds
• AF SR-71 Blackbird is currently the world's fastest aircraft with speeds above Mach 3.2 or 2,200 mph
• Hermeus is also working on Darkhouse, a hypersonic plane for defense and intelligence missions that's capable of sustained flight at Mach 5
• Hypersonic passenger jet Halcyon is also being developed by Hermeus with Mach 5 speed, 4,600 mile range and capable of flying from NYC to Paris in 90 minutes. 
• It's expected that aviation could enter the hypersonic era of commercial travel by the end of this decade.

For more news stories like this, Flight Path to the Future

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