The strangest plane in the world that intends to break the speed record + photo

The prototype of a strange aircraft called Quarterhorse, made by the Hermeus company, wants to break the SR-71 Blackbird's speed record after many years.

An American startup company named Hermeus has designed a prototype of a supersonic jet called “Quarterhorse”, which it claims can be called the “world's fastest plane” with an innovative unmanned aerial system called Darkhorse. But how fast can Dark Horse be?

The SR-71 Blackbird spy plane of the United States, whose production goes back to 1976, managed to record a speed of Mach 3.3. Thanks to this incident, Blackbird managed to record the speed record of an aircraft with a crew while flying in the earth's atmosphere.

Dark Horse is a supersonic technology and can fly through the sky at speeds exceeding Mach 5. But unlike the Blackbird, this aircraft is not only designed for military purposes and will have civilian uses as well.

But before showing off his Dark Horse technology, Hermeus needs to make sure that he can actually live up to his promises. For this reason, they have designed a product called MK 0 in the form of the Quarterhorse project to use it in the initial tests of this system. This is the first time that a product of this family is included in the test of “all the main subsystems of the aircraft in a real environment”. These tests are very comprehensive and examine all parts of the aircraft in real conditions.

This remote control airplane sets the speed record

The manufacturer has shown that it is able to remotely control this basic device and it can safely be placed on the runway and fly like a pilot-carrying plane. The tests were conducted at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) in Tullahoma, Tennessee, and are the first in a series of tests that will lead to the Quarterhorse finally experiencing an actual flight in a few months.

Hermeus plans to build four prototypes of the model, each of which will add layers of complexity to the system. The construction of three other prototypes will not last too long; Because Mk 0 was built in only 6 months. The MK 1 prototype is a product that will perform its first real flight test by the end of the month and will use remote control for takeoff and landing.

The MK 2 is also being tested to break the sound barrier and reach a speed of less than Mach 3. But the latest quarterhorse prototype, the MK 3, will be tested for the turbojet to ramjet transition and then attempt to break the Blackbird's speed record. Of course, it is not clear at the moment how its effort will be.

Currently, the latest Quarterhorse model uses General Electric engines with a thrust level of 5,000 pounds.