Aerospace startup Hermeus has taken one other step towards difficult the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird’s legendary supersonic velocity document as the corporate’s uncrewed Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 lifted off from Spaceport America in New Mexico on March 2, 2026 for its maiden flight.
One of many legends of the Chilly Struggle, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird reads like one thing out of a spy thriller. Designed by Clarence “Kelly” Johnson at Lockheed’s Skunk Works, it was a jet-black plane constructed largely from titanium, with large engines and sweeping strains that will not look out in a futuristic sci-fi film.
It was additionally terribly quick – so quick that out of greater than 4,000 missiles fired at SR-71s by hostile forces, not a single one hit as a result of none might catch the plane. With a cruising velocity past Mach 3, it might merely outrun something fired at it. The Blackbird nonetheless holds the document because the quickest air-breathing plane ever constructed, reaching an official high velocity of Mach 3.32.
Quarterhorse 2.1
And that was in 1976, 50 years in the past.
In the present day, Hermeus goals to surpass that document with its Quarterhorse plane, which is being developed as a precursor to an much more formidable reusable Darkhorse hypersonic plane supposed for protection and nationwide safety functions.
To attain this, Hermeus isn’t constructing Quarterhorse as a single airframe. As a substitute, its technique is to speed up growth by fielding a sequence of prototypes, every designed to handle a particular part of flight. The primary, Quarterhorse Mk 0, was constructed solely for taxi exams to validate built-in methods. It was adopted by the Mk 1, which flew in Could 2025 and centered on validating high-speed takeoffs and landings.
Hermeus
Now the Mk 2.1 is flying over the White Sands Missile Vary in New Mexico in a subsonic maiden flight supposed to validate the uncrewed plane’s methods. If profitable, the plan is to steadily develop the flight envelope earlier than transferring to the Mk 2.2, which is able to try to interrupt the sound barrier.
This cautious method is normal observe for supersonic plane growth due to the advanced aerodynamic forces that happen as an plane transitions from subsonic to transonic after which to supersonic speeds. A mistake throughout this part can rapidly flip a prototype into very costly particles.
The Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 is roughly the dimensions of a Normal Dynamics F-16 and is the primary within the sequence to make use of a delta-wing configuration optimized for supersonic aerodynamics. It’s powered by a modified Pratt & Whitney F100 jet engine fitted with a proprietary precooler within the air inlet to stop overheating at excessive speeds. For the hypersonic Mk 3, this engine will likely be changed with Hermeus’ Chimera turbine-based combined-cycle (TBCC) engine as the corporate makes an attempt high-Mach flight and a problem to the SR-71’s air-breathing velocity document.
“Pace is the elemental requirement for our flight methods and for our firm,” stated AJ Piplica, CEO and Founding father of Hermeus. “We’re constructing and flying plane on timelines that match the urgency of the world we’re in. In the present day’s flight kicks off a important flight check marketing campaign that may in the end get us to supersonic speeds, bringing the US nearer to having the high-speed functionality it wants now, not many years from now.”
Supply: Hermeus
