NYC To London In 90 Minutes? Startup Hermeus Pushing Toward Mach 5 Hypersonic Aircraft With Investment from Billionaire Steve Case

Hermeus Corp. is an Atlanta-based startup generating buzz for its planned hypersonic planes that can cut projected travel times. 

Investors, including billionaire Steve Case, have put millions into Hermeus to fund its goals of revolutionizing air travel. Founded in 2018 by a team including AJ Piplica, Skyler Shuford, Glenn Case and Mike Smayda, Hermeus partnered with the U.S. Air Force and NASA in its development of hypersonic craft that can help with several national security challenges. 

Trending: Runway debris causes $4 billion in damage to the aviation industry every year. One startup funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and Homeland Security aims to solve this nuisance in a spectacular fashion, and you can invest in it today.

Flying At 5,500 Feet Per Second

Hermeus is developing a powerful engine called Chimera that offers a turbojet to ramjet transition engine with peak speeds reaching up to Mach 5, or 3,836.5 miles per hour. This is fast enough to go from New York City to London in the time it takes to watch three episodes of "Arrested Development." At 3,800 miles per hour, a craft would travel about 5,500 feet per second.

The company's first planned plane is Quarterhorse, a remotely piloted high-speed aircraft that will cruise at 80,000 feet at speeds up to 3,000 miles per hour. The goal for this plane, expected in 2025, is to test the Chimera engine and break the long-standing airspeed record held by the SR-71 Blackbird high-altitude military spy plane. 

The next development is Darkhorse, a 45-foot-long uncrewed aerial system (UAS) for intelligence agencies and defense capabilities. Hermeus's commercial craft plane is Halcyon, a streamlined titanium-alloy structure that can withstand extreme speeds at high altitudes. This 20-passenger plane will reach altitudes of 90,000 — known as near space — where people on board could see astonishing views of the earth's curvature. 

Former AOL CEO Supports Company

Hermeus is developing aircraft with the potential to shrink the flight time between New York and London to just 90 minutes — the same amount of time it typically takes to go from a New York airport to Washington D.C., in a traditional jet. If successful, Hermeus will offer travelers a quick way to cross the Atlantic at speeds rivaling the iconic Concord, which took approximately three hours to reach London from New York City. The company's planes could transform air travel, shortening trips drastically and resulting in travel times including:

• Los Angeles to Honolulu in an hour
• Seattle to Tokyo in two hours and 45 minutes
• Miami to Sao Paulo in one hour and 45 minutes

Case is a billionaire investor who is a former CEO AOL, an original internet company founded in 1985. Case changed the name of Quantum Computer Services to AOL and turned the company into an internet powerhouse that offered early social interaction tools and transformed the economy and tech-based communication.  

His Hermeus investment underscores both the company's promising prospects and the increasing significance of startups outside Silicon Valley. His venture fund Revolution follows the Rise of the Rest movement that focuses capital on entrepreneurs at various growth stages. The companies are typically located outside of the Silicon Valley area. A company that fits this mold is Texas-based AvaWatz, a startup firm developing collaboration tools that can pair teams of drones and robots to perform complex data-informed tasks. 

Hermeus's recent strides include the successful completion of a wind tunnel test for its aircraft design. Hermeus is now setting its sights on conducting its inaugural flight in 2025. Case is enthusiastic about Hermeus's visionary mission and thinks it could revolutionize the way people travel.