Washington – Rocket engine manufacturer Ursa Major signed a $ 32.9 million deal to supply 16 advanced propulsion systems to Stratech for hypersonic flight tests.
Under the contract announced on 16 June, the Ursa Major based in Colorado will distribute an advanced version of its headley engine for use in the reusable hypersonic vehicle of Stratolach for use called Talon-A for use. Stratolach has a contract with the pentagon that provides testing vehicles and infrastructure for military systems.
“The contract is compulsory to accelerate the US hypersonic test infrastructure and high-speed flight programs directly,” Ursa chief CEO Dan Jablonsky said in a statement.
Advanced Headley Engine is called H13.
Chris Spagnolatti, president of the Liquid Systems at Ursa Major, said, “This version increases the engine again with additional start, reduces the cost per flight, supporting new test objectives and mission profiles.” He said that H13 uses advanced metals and is designed to fly more than double the missions as the current engine version.
The Headley engine has operated several Talon-e-Mission. The engine produces 5,000 pounds thrust and operates on liquid oxygen and kerosene using a staged combustion cycle-a design that is usually found in large orbital-class engines.
Pentagon hypersonic testing program
Stratolach, located in California, is one of the several private aerospace firms tapped by the US Department of Defense to accelerate hypersonic flight tests.
Pentagon uses Talon-A of Stratolach as a test platform. The world’s largest aircraft-tallone-A can be launched at a height by a mounted-wingpan under the wing of the company’s massive carrier aircraft and can reach speed at 5, or five times higher than the sound speed.
The testing system at hypersonic speed remains expensive and logically complicated, making re-purpose platforms such as Talon-A rapidly valuable, defense authorities have said.
