Hypersonix awarded first major contract

Hypersonix Launch Systems has been selected from a field of 63 respondents by the United States’ Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to provide aircraft for hypersonic tests, the company’s first major contract.

The DIU selected Hypersonix for the “Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities” (HyCAT1) program, which seeks to test in a “representative environment”, maintaining speeds greater than Mach 5 with a manoeuvrable/non-ballistic flight profile and a minimum three-minute flight duration with near-constant flight conditions. 

“Our vehicles are capable of non-ballistic flight patterns to at least Mach 7, which exceeds  the HyCAT1 specification,” said David Waterhouse, Managing Director, Hypersonix Launch Systems, in a statement on Friday morning. 

“This is our first major contract and a key step in our commercialisation process – we couldn’t be happier. This puts Australia one step closer to being a major player in the  international space race.”

Hypersonix was established with the aim of eventually being able to fly small satellites into space, though Australia’s allies saw the “immediate potential” in the company’s technologies, added Waterhouse.

Hypersonix will provide its DART AE (Additive Engineering) vehicle, which “makes significant use of 3D-printing” and uses a hydrogen-fuelled SPARTAN scramjet engine for propulsion. According to the company it can fly “non-ballistic flight patterns at speeds of Mach 5 to Mach 7″ and up to 1,000 kilometres in range.

“Commercial companies are forging ahead towards reusable and low-cost test vehicles,” Major Ryan Weed, PhD, a program manager in DIU’s space portfolio.

“The HyCAT project represents a paradigm shift in viewing the hypersonic realm as a place for aircraft, not just missiles and weapons.”

Flight tests of the DART AE are planned for early 2024. DIU said its HyCAT tests will begin “within 12-18 months.”  

A second contract was awarded to Californian company Fenix Space, for a reusable “tow-launch platform”.

Hypersonix’s DIU contract – the value of which was not disclosed – permits the US agency to “transition” successful prototype projects into follow-on “production contracts” under simplified rules and without need  to re-compete a successful project. 

DIU is headquartered in Silicon Valley , with four other US offices.

Picture: supplied

Further reading

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HYPERSONIX SUCCESSFULLY BUILDS, TESTS PROTOTYPE SCRAMJET ENGINE AND FUEL SYSTEM