Air Force awards aerospace start-up Hermeus $60 million contract

The Air Force and a group of venture capital firms have struck a $60 million contract with Georgia-based aerospace start-up Hermeus Corporation to bolster hypersonic development.

Under the July 30 deal announced today, Hermeus, which is working to assemble a commercial Mach 5 aircraft, is expected to develop, build and test three of its first concept reusable aircraft -- Quarterhorse -- within three years. The agreement is funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate and “various venture capital sources,” according to a press release.

Brig. Gen. Jason Lindsey, the program executive officer for presidential and executive airlift, said in the release that the service’s support of Hermeus and other companies “is to expand the defense industrial base for both aircraft manufacture, and hypersonic propulsion development.”

“Ultimately, we want to have options within the commercial aircraft marketplace for platforms that can be modified for enduring Air Force missions such as senior leader transport, as well as mobility, [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance], and possibly other mission sets,” he said.

In addition to the development, testing and building requirements included in the contract, the language features four other objectives that direct Hermeus to provide a payload integration guide for future Quarterhouse hypersonic flight testing, give the Air Force wargaming inputs, scale and flight test a reusable hypersonic propulsion system and more, per the release.

The deal marks the first use of the Strategic Financing program, which aims to connect Defense Department acquisition offices, private investors and airmen to streamline the delivery of strategic capabilities to the Air Force.