Australian Startup Scores Big U.S. Hypersonics Contract.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew

GEELONG, Australia -- The Defense Innovation Unit chose four-year-old Australian startup Hypersonix Launch Systems for its highly competitive Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities, or HyCAT, program.

DIU selected Hypersonix from 63 respondents to the agency's September 2022 HyCAT solicitation seeking vehicles usable for high-cadence, long endurance testing of: hypersonic platforms and components; sensors for detecting and tracking; and systems for communications, navigation, guidance and control, a statement said.

It was a big win for a non-U.S.-based contractor.

The company was founded in 2019 by former classmates and engineers Michael Smart, the chief technology officer, and managing director David Waterhouse, said Nina Patz, head of marketing and business development for the company, prior to the announcement in an interview at Avalon -- The Australian Air Show.

Smart was working on scram-jet engines with NASA until 2004, when the United States all but abandoned hypersonics research. He returned to Australia to teach the subject at the university level for 15 years while working on his concept for his Spartan scramjet engine. Waterhouse was a satellite engineer prior to joining the company.

DIU requested a vehicle capable of operating in a "representative environment" that can maintain speeds greater than Mach 5 with a maneuverable/non-ballistic flight profile and at least a three-minute flight duration with near-constant flight conditions. DIU also wants the flights to be repeated at short intervals, a company statement said.

A scramjet engine relies on supersonic speeds to compress and ignite fuel. The Hypersonix Spartan engine is part of the entirely 3D-printed Dart-AE hypersonic aircraft, Patz said. It can go as fast as Mach 7, which exceeds the DIU specifications.

Deepak Basra, head of the company's U.S. division, said except for the electronics, the engine and vehicle are all 3D printed using Inconel, a patented nickel-chromium-based super alloy produced by U.S.-based Special Metals Corp. The alloy has been used in many rocket programs, he added.

Another unique characteristic of the DART-AE compared to other scramjet-based vehicles is that it runs on "green" hydrogen fuel rather than kerosene, she said. Hydrogen is self-igniting, she noted.

Kerosene fuels are not self-igniting, "so you've got one chance for them to light or not. And at $1.2 billion a launch, that's...