The Future Of Fighter Jets - EP 93 Hermeus With Zach Shore And A.J. Piplica

Hermeus is proving rapid, cheap iterative aircraft development can outpace traditional defense primes en route to hypersonic flight.

• Supersonic achieved cheaply: Hermeus's unmanned Quarterhorse Mk 2.1, sized like an F-16 with a Pratt & Whitney F-100 engine, hit Mach 1.21 after just 45 minutes of total flight time, far faster than traditional incremental test programs.
• Hybrid propulsion roadmap: The company is building a turbine-to-ramjet hybrid engine with a precooler, switching from turbine to ramjet around Mach 3; Mk 2.2 (precooler) and Mk 2.3 (ramjet transition) are slated through mid-2026.

Themes, sentiment and reasons are AI-written paraphrases, checked so they never quote an episode. They may contain errors. Not investment advice. Episodes remain the property of their creators.