Hermeus Quarterhorse aircraft
Hermeus, a developer of hypersonic aircraft for defense and commercial applications, has announced the purchase of two metal 3D printers from Velo3D.
The pair of original Sapphire and large-format Sapphire XC machines will be used to 3D print parts in Inconel 718 for the company’s Mach 5 Chimera engine and Quarterhorse aircraft. The Chimera engine is a turbine-based combined cycle engine that will power the Quarterhorse, an autonomous aircraft that's designed to touch high Mach speeds and is set for its first flight in 2023.
“Metal additive manufacturing is a core component of our plan to vertically integrate production,” said Glenn Case, CTO at Hermeus. “As we explore the capabilities of Velo3D’s additive manufacturing technology, we’ll be looking for ways to increase performance, consolidate components, reduce weight of our aircraft, and minimise external dependencies.”
Since its founding in 2018, Hermeus has secured more than 130 million USD in funding, including a 100 million USD Series B and contracts with the U.S. Air Force. It has also earned support from the likes of NASA and other U.S. government agencies as well as funding from aerospace innovators including Raytheon Technologies' venture capital group, RTX Ventures.
“Hypersonics is an extremely challenging subset of the aviation industry and at the speeds that Hermeus will achieve, temperature, vibration, and aerodynamics play major factors in the flight of the aircraft,” said Benny Buller, Velo3D CEO and Founder. “There are not many teams with the deep experience in hypersonics, aviation, and space flight that Hermeus has, and we’re truly honoured to provide Sapphire printers to help them achieve their goals. I have no doubt that they will bring their vision to life and make hypersonic commercial flight a reality.”
Velo3D’s technology has already been adopted by a number of aerospace and defense manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin, Pratt and Whitney and Boom Supersonic. It has also been put to work by new space companies such as Launcher, which has installed multiple Sapphire systems to manufacture complex large-format rocket engine components. Earlier this month, Velo3D unveiled test parts from a collaboration with Purdue University which saw its "support-free" additive manufacturing technology used to produce fuel injectors for combustion systems intended for use in hypersonic environments.
