Brisbane space startup to provide hypersonic vehicles for US Defense

Space start-up Hypersonix Launch Systems has been selected by the United States’ Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to provide hypersonic vehicles for testing.

The Brisbane company will provide the DIU with its DART AE (Additive Engineering) vehicle, which is powered by a hydrogen-fuelled SPARTAN scramjet engine.

This is capable of flying non-ballistic flight patterns at speeds of Mach 5 to Mach 7 and up to 1000 kms in range with 400 seconds flight time.

Hypersonix was selected by the DIU and its US Air Force and Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering (USD R&E) partner to deliver the vehicle for the Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities (HyCAT1) program.

It was selected from 68 respondents, including several major international aerospace companies, to the a request for proposals posted in September 2022 seeking vehicles usable for high cadence long-endurance testing.

The DIU was looking for hypersonic platforms and components; sensors for detecting and tracking; and systems for communications, navigation, guidance and control.

It requested a vehicle capable of operating in a ‘representative environment’ that can maintain speeds above Mach 5 with a manoeuvrable and non-ballistic flight profile and at least a three-minute flight duration with near-constant flight conditions. 

The three-metre long DART AE uses 3D printing and has a modular payload bay of up to 9.1 kg, with plans to fly it in early 2024.

“Our vehicles are capable of non-ballistic flight patterns to at least Mach 7, which exceeds the HyCAT1 specification," Hypersonix Launch Systems managing director David Waterhouse said.

“Our longer-term focus is to capture a slice of the emerging multi-billion-dollar commercial market for deployment of small satellites, but clearly Australia’s strategic defence allies see immediate potential in our technology.”

“This is our first major contract and a key step in our commercialisation process – we couldn’t be happier," Waterhouse said.

"This puts Australia one step closer to being a major player in the international space race,” he added," he added.

Founded in 2019, the company uses supersonic combustion ramjet jet engines that at high speeds compress incoming airfuel mixtures to allow craft to operate at extremely high speeds.

With the SPARTAN hydrogen-air engine, Hypersonix hopes to reach speads of up to Mach 12, or 14,300 kilometres per hour.

Hypersonix is a spin-off from the University of Queensland's Hypersonics research centre, set up to commercialise the ultra high speed flight technology.