Hermeus unveils Quarterhorse Mk 1

8 April 2024

Hermeus, the company working to operationalize hypersonic aircraft, unveiled the Quarterhorse Mk 1 on Thursday. The Quarterhorse Mk 1 was designed, built and integrated in seven months and will take flight later this year.

The Quarterhorse Mk 1 is the second fully-integrated vehicle Hermeus has developed in the last year, following the Quarterhorse Mk 0 which completed its test campaign in November 2023. This fast pace in development is representative of a new standard of one aircraft annually, which the Hermeus team has set for the pace of aircraft development. The new Quarterhorse Mk 1 is an uncrewed, remotely piloted aircraft powered by a GE J85 engine. The primary mission is to show high-speed takeoff and landing, which is a vital capability in enabling the future of hypersonic aircraft. Flight tests will be taking place at Edwards Air Force Base.

This major milestone marks a transition from the design and build phase to the integrated test phase for Mk1. In the coming months, the vehicle will go through a series of tests across its subsystems, ground station, operations and human factors to prepare it for flight testing later this year.

“Moving into the integrated test program is the culmination of a huge team effort and a significant emotional event for the entire company,” Hermeus VP of Test Don Kaderbek said. “As we begin the journey to the first flight, we will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the aircraft’s performance while simultaneously examining the effectiveness of our test procedures, safety culture, and interdisciplinary team collaboration. We’re excited and humbled to conduct this testing at the legendary Edwards Air Force Base.”

The aircraft in the Quarterhorse program are progressively increasing in complexity, each building upon the knowledge gained from the prior builds. This approach manages program risk across the many vehicles and will accelerate the delivery of products and services to Hermeus customers.

“The most unique and important aspect of our approach to developing a hypersonic aircraft is our rate of iteration – designing, building, and flying an aircraft in less than a year, every year,” Hermeus CEO and Co-Founder AJ Piplica said. “It’s a pace that hasn’t been seen in the aircraft world for half a century. This approach has been proven successful in delivering massive improvements in the capabilities of rockets, satellites, and small drones. We’re now bringing that power of iteration speed to aircraft. It’s a capability that is absolutely necessary for solving the challenges of operationalizing hypersonic aircraft.”

Along with showcasing the new aircraft, Hermeus has unveiled plans for the Quarterhorse Mk 2, which will feature Pratt & Whitney F100 engines and fly at supersonic speeds in 2025. This rapid rate of development is nearly unmatched. Piplica said on Twitter that the plane was designed completely from scratch, “from napkin to airplane in 204 days.” He said the standard is 1,400 days (3.5 years). Hermeus barely missed the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star record, which was the first fighter jet the U.S. Air Force used in WWII, and was delivered only 143 days from the original design, beating Hermeus by a mere 61 days.

“For just over 50 years the F100 has powered the F-15 and F-16 with industry-leading reliability, and now it enters a new era of aviation,” said Josh Goodman, the senior director of the F100 program at Pratt & Whitney. “From the J58 powering the SR-71, to the F119 in the F-22 and the F135 in the F-35, Pratt & Whitney has a long history of building cutting-edge engines and that will only continue as we strengthen our partnership with Hermeus. Seeing a new aircraft flying the F100 supersonic next year will be nothing short of extraordinary.”

Hermeus has made the strategic decision to transition to the more capable F100 engine for the next variant. This will push Hermeus along in its journey to the Darkhorse, a multi-mission hypersonic aircraft for defense and national security missions and simultaneously deliver a compelling intermediate product, the world’s only purpose-built high-Mach drone.

Hermeus accepts first Pratt & Whitney F100 engine

“This upgrade is a huge win for getting a high-performance aircraft into the hands of customers sooner and shows the power of the fast and iterative approach at Hermeus,” Hermeus COO and Co-Founder Skyler Shuford said. “By breaking free of rigid, multi-year development timelines, we are enabled to build the right aircraft for this moment and get that aircraft in the air in less than a year. Mk 2 will be our 3rd sub-year aircraft system build, and while we still need to prove ourselves in flight, an enormous amount of programmatic risk is reduced by having the next airplane closely following.”