Former Australian ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos (left) with Hypersonix CEO Matt Hill (second from left), co-founder Dr Michael Smart (second from right) and a model of the DART AE hypersonic vehicle. Photo: Hypersonix.
Two major Australian corporations have joined a consortium of global aerospace and defence investors to back a Brisbane-based start-up developing a reusable hydrogen-powered hypersonic aircraft.
The $46 million Series A funding round for Hypersonix Launch Systems has come from the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) and the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC). They join UK investor High Tor Capital, Sweden’s Saab, and Polish family company RKKVC. The investment deal was put together by North Ridge Partners.
Hypersonix is Australia’s self-described leading aerospace engineering, design and build company, specialising in hypersonic technology and scramjet engines. Hypersonic denotes air vehicles capable of travelling more than five times the speed of sound.
The company’s proprietary SPARTAN scramjet engine is 3D-printed, reusable, and capable of reaching Mach 12 with no moving parts.
The company said that, unlike conventional scramjets powered by kerosene, SPARTAN used hydrogen, which produced no carbon dioxide emissions and offered a reusable, low-maintenance solution for a range of high-speed defence and aerospace missions.
The technology was developed by Hypersonix co-founder Dr Michael Smart, who is a former chair of Hypersonic Propulsion at the University of Queensland and a former NASA research scientist.
“SPARTAN is more than a propulsion system,” Dr Smart said. ”It’s a breakthrough in reusable hypersonic flight. What we’re building is a sovereign platform that’s clean, cost-effective, and engineered for the real world.”
Hypersonix co-founder David Waterhouse said the capital raise was a defining moment for Australia’s aerospace ambitions.
“Hypersonix was founded on the belief that Australia could lead the world in sustainable hypersonic flight,” he said. “This raise validates that vision.”
The Series A funding will support the NASA-backed test flight of DART AE — a 3.5-metre-long hypersonic vehicle powered by SPARTAN.
DART AE will fly under the US Department of Defense’s HyCAT program, which is managed by the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), and will be launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
High Tor Capital CEO James Chiswell said his team saw enormous potential in the Hypersonix platforms.
“DART AE and VISR are transforming how we think about access to the edge of space and high-speed defence,” he said.
The NRFC’s $10 million equity stake is its first defence sector investment, and CEO David Gall said defence was one of the federal entity’s priority areas.
“We see huge potential in backing Australian companies and innovations that build our sovereign capability while also tapping into the global market for hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities among our friends and allies,” he said.
QIC Ventures partner Nicholas Guest said Hypersonix represented a rare opportunity to back a local company at the forefront of globally significant hypersonic technology.
“This is breakthrough technology allowing Australia and its allies to fly faster, further and more often with an unmatched combination of speed, sustainability and cost advantage,” he said.
