Hermeus Selects Jacksonville for New Hypersonic Aircraft Testing Facility
Atlanta-based high-tech aviation company Hermeus recently announced that it will open a hypersonic engine testing facility in Jacksonville. This new facility will be housed at Cecil Airport, bringing in a total of 100 new high-wage jobs and a capital investment of $135 million to the region.
Named HEAT (High Enthalpy Air-Breathing Test Facility), the Jacksonville facility will be Hermeus’ largest and most technologically advanced test site to date and become a national asset for hypersonic testing.
The objective of this new testing facility is to evaluate hypersonic aircraft engines that will offer transatlantic travel – these hypersonic aircraft engines, which reach five times the speed of sound, have the potential to offer a 90-minute flight from New York to London.
Hermeus was founded in 2018 to radically accelerate air travel by delivering hypersonic aircraft, and has expanded tremendously since its inception. The Jacksonville site will be Hermeus’ fifth in the country for engine development and include two engine test cells, an office building and a hush house (a noise-suppressed facility used for testing aircraft systems). , “We’re getting bigger, but we needed space to do that,” said Glenn Case, Co-founder and Chief Technologist of Hermeus. “Florida was the right place to do it.”
The project will begin in September 2024.
The region’s focus on aerospace leads to a natural drive for manufacturing companies to relocate and expand in the region, specifically surrounding Cecil Commerce Center. Hermeus will join other aerospace manufacturers, such as Boeing, Northrop Grumman, KAMAN Aerospace, Collins Aerospace, Redwire Space, Embraer and Fleet Readiness Center, that have found success in Jacksonville due to the region’s access to talent, affordability, global connectivity and world-class infrastructure.Hermeus will not only bring a multitude of new jobs to the region, but also further solidify Northeast Florida’s global leadership role in space and defense technology with the development of hypersonic travel.