The supersonic jet startup Hermeus announced another 16 million dollars in funding as it seeks to build it’s Mach 5 jet capable of making the NYC to London trip in around 90 minutes.
Traveling fives times the speed of sound? Airplane startup Hermeus is building a jet capable of doing exactly that and on October 29th, 2020 it announced a round of Series A funding let by Canaan Partners. In this round of funding the ambitious startup received 16 million dollars of additional funding which, as they noted in their press release, they intend to keep “…building the foundational capabilities for high-speed flight, as well as the dedicated team that will enable its successes.”
For those old enough to remember the ultimately doomed Concorde jet, which flew around Mach 2, Hermeus, if successful, will make a major improvement on this speed. Today, the flight from NYC to London takes around 7 hours or so and the Concorde made it just under 3 hours. But, a 90 minute flight? Wow. That’s no more than a regional connection flight. Impressive if they can pull it off.
“Hermeus is a venture-backed company with the long-term vision of transforming the global human transportation network with Mach 5 aircraft. At Mach 5 – over 3000 miles  per hour – flight times from New York to London will be 90 minutes rather than seven hours. High-speed aircraft offer disruptive differentiation where the main metric is speed — which has historically resulted in economic expansion — over plush seats. Mach 5 aircraft have the potential to create an additional two trillion dollars of global economic growth per year, unlocking significant resources that can be utilized to solve the world’s great problems.”
Hermeus
Canaan Partners also added a board member as part of the funding round with Rich Boyle joining the team. In pursuit of their ambitious goal, CEO AJ Piplica notes:
“We are pursuing a goal so difficult that it has never been achieved before, and yet so impactful that it is the single most important way we can spend our time. As we grow, we continue to attract the very best people, diverse in perspective and united in purpose, determined to achieve what some people think is impossible – creating a substantially faster future.”
Here’s a video that elaborates on their ambitious goals:
2 comments
90 minutes, not enough to watch. movie while on board. Too bad 🙂
How am I supposed to have my pre-flight champagne, my red wine with my meal with appetizer, my two lovely desserts, my Woodford Reserve over ice, my snack biscuits, my two coffees with irish cream and finally, my breakfast, juice and coffee in just 90 minutes, not to mention missing out on a good movie and the opportunity to sit back, relax and listen to some good jazz on my noise cancelling headphones? The answer is, of course, no thank you as ninety minutes spent on this supersonic flight would be a waste of precious time.