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to fly from New York City to London in about
90 minutes.
The Atlanta-based Hermeus Corporation said it
aims to build a jet with a cruising speed of 3,300
mph – more than four times the speed of sound.
At that rate, it would take about 90 minutes to
cross the Atlantic Ocean, while currently flights
often last more than seven hours. If successful,
Hermeus’ aircraft would fly twice as fast as the
now-retired Concorde, which could complete
transatlantic flights in about three-and-a-half
hours. “We’ve set out on a journey to revolu-
tionize the global transportation infrastructure,
bringing it from the equivalent of dial-up into
the broadband era, by radically increasing the
speed of travel over long distances,” AJ Piplica,
Hermeus’ co-founder and CEO, said in a state-
ment on the company’s website. The company
— whose four co-founders previously worked
together at Generation Orbit, where they led
the development of the Air Force’s X-60A
hypersonic rocket plane — said it would take
about a decade to develop the aircraft.

“We have a ton of flying to do in that time –
we’ll have at least two smaller iterations of
[X-plane] design doesn’t eliminate shock, it just minimizes it, so aircraft that we’ll build, test, and learn from in
what’s perceived on the ground is almost imperceptible.” The that time,” Hermeus co-founder and CEO AJ
demonstrator, at 90 feet long, will be smaller than future civil super- Piplica told CNN recently. “The main challenge
sonic aircraft. The goal is to eventually have commercial supersonic is integrating the core technologies together
transportation. The Concorde’s sound at cruising altitude was about and testing them. It’s really difficult to recre-
90 A-weighted decibels, but Buonanno said that based on tests, ate the Mach 5 environment on the ground,
the X-plane would generate about 60 A-weighted decibels of noise. which calls for a rethinking of how we develop
Quick and quiet are the buzz words.

Buonanno and Corke are buoyed by advances that may help over- Mach Rule
turn the 43-year ban on overland supersonic flight, a goal spelled
out by NASA, Buonanno said. “NASA stated this is a mission for
themselves,” Buonanno said. “They think they need to lead the Mach cut-off flight in the U.S. is currently not
efforts to change the regulations.” Lockheed Martin is also in the permitted per FAA regulation 91.817. The
process of developing the SR-72, a hypersonic unmanned plane FAA states that a rule change or exemption
dubbed the “son of the Blackbird.” And when it comes to developing would be required, along with certification of
the technology, for Mach cut-off (and flights
a high-speed reconnaissance aircraft, the Pentagon’s top weapons above Mach 1) over the US. Mach cut-off
supplier is playing in its home court. flight in ICAO member countries outside the
U.S. may be permissible per ICAO Assembly
In 1976, the Air Force flew Lockheed Martin’s SR-71 Blackbird from Resolution A33-7, Appendix G, depending on
New York to London in less than two hours — at speeds exceeding advancement and certification of the tech-
Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound. The SR-72 is envisioned nology that enables Mach cut-off flight. The
to operate at speeds up to Mach 6. And while the hypersonic SR-72 subsonic reference airplane flies at .90 Mach.
isn’t expected to be operational until 2030, the company sees Analysts say the Senate’s latest draft of the
developing a platform of that magnitude as a game changer. “This FAA reauthorization bill includes language
could forever change our ability to deter and respond to conflict, proposed by Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and
allowing warfighters to quickly address threats before an adversary Cory Gardner, R-Colo., that would require the
FAA to develop a rule to permit “the develop-
may have time to react,” Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson ment, testing, manufacturing, and operation
said of the hypersonic plane. Hewson also said the development of civil supersonic aircraft.” Since 2016, advo-
of the aircraft, which is estimated to cost US$1 billion, will change cates of supersonic flight have pushed to lift
the “definition of air power by giving the U.S. significant tactical and existing bans on overland flight in the US
strategic advantages.” Another U.S. aerospace start-up company despite the objections of environmental and
also has secured a round of funding to develop a jet with the ability public health groups.

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