Hermeus completed testing of its first fully integrated vehicle, Quarterhorse Mk 0, a non-flying prototype used as a “dynamic iron bird” for testing subsystems of what would become a hypersonic aircraft.
Mk 0 is one of four test vehicles in the Quarterhorse program, involving the development of a subscale hypersonic aircraft that will test the company’s Chimera engine, reach speeds of Mach 4, and refine concepts for future civil and military hypersonic aircraft.
The iron bird was designed and built in six months and completed test objectives in 37 days, Hermeus reported. These included demonstrating remote command and control taxiing, evaluating radio frequency latency and ground handling qualities of the integrated systems, demonstrating the proper state of the vehicle and flight deck during lost link, and demonstrating human factor evaluations and pilot-in-the-loop steering and controls.
Tests were conducted at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) in Tullahoma, Tennessee, enabling Hermeus to work directly with U.S. Air Force personnel on the project. The Air Force has awarded multiple contracts to Hermeus, including one valued at $60 million for the development of hypersonic technologies and another for support of its Advanced Battle Management System program, which has a $950 million ceiling.
“This was the first time our flight test team had an opportunity to work in a deployed test campaign with external stakeholders,” said Don Kaderbek, Hermeus v-p of test. “The more the team works together and establishes their battle rhythm, the smoother flight testing will go.”
Other Quarterhorse vehicles in the works are Mk1, the first flight-test aircraft that is expected to take to the skies later this year; Mk 2, which will test autonomous supersonic flight; and Mk 3, which will demonstrate turbojet to ramjet mode transition and surpass speeds of the SR-71.
The Quarterhorse testbed will help pave the way for Hermeus' larger Darkhorse hypersonic vehicle for military use, as well as the 20-passenger Halcyon hypersonic business jet/airliner.