Mission Brief: Hermeus

Mission Brief

• Founded: 2018
• Headquarters: Atlanta, Georgia
• Mission: Operationalize hypersonic flight for defense and commercial aviation.
• Core Technology: High-Mach and hypersonic aircraft. Most recent prototype: Quarterhorse Mk 1.
• Operational Focus: Rapid prototyping and iterative testing to dramatically accelerate aerospace development cycles.

The Challenge

Hermeus sets development timelines that haven’t been achieved since ‘the golden age of aerospace’ in the 60s, compressing typical aerospace timelines from a decade to less than a year. Their team is committed to rapid iteration & innovation to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

At the same time, achieving hypersonic flight involves extreme operational complexity – intense thermal environments, rapid system dynamics, and precise real-time data handling from multiple sources.

Hermeus engineers faced:

• High-stakes safety & performance checks in extreme conditions.
• Complex data integration and organization, involving simultaneous streaming from software-in-the-loop (SIL), hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), and static file sources – with multiple file formats and changing configurations.
• Complicated system and component testing across disparate test sites with disaggregated engineering teams, including government sites with limited connectivity

Hermeus needed well-organized, easy access to data, regardless of the engineering team, test site, or subsystem. Without it, their ambitious timelines would be impossible.

Unfortunately, legacy aerospace tools choke at scale. They’re local-only, manual, and blind to historical context. For Hermeus, the choice was stark: limp forward with tools built for the Cold War, or spend millions on custom software – delaying missions by years.

That’s where Nominal stepped in.

The Solution: Continuous test, powered by Nominal

Nominal embedded itself in every testing workflow across Hermeus’ development progress. From avionics and flight software simulations to materials testing to engine tests to the first flight, Nominal provides the confidence & performance that engineers need to achieve record-breaking timelines.

Nominal Connect for ingest and control

Testing across engineering disciplines required ingest of multiple data formats – PCAPs from full-scale engine test stands, ch10 streams with variable TMATs from flight software simulations and onboard flight computers, live video.

Nominal enabled 80% reduction in time from ‘upload-start’ to ‘eyes-on-data.’ GUI and headless Connect pipelines abstracted away the difficulties of different data formats – automatically encoding and time-stamping data so that engineers could focus on analysis.

Robust, direct hardware control interfaces in Connect allowed engineers to set their test conditions, see live data on the edge, and stream to Nominal Core for engineers offsite.

Nominal helped engineers minimize time from test to build, accelerating cycles and timelines.

Nominal Core for validation and alerting

At the High Enthalpy Air-breathing Test (HEAT) facility outside Jacksonville, FL, the propulsion team configured automatic validation checklists to apply to each new test event. Engineers were immediately alerted of any anomalous trends or out-of-specification conditions. Using Nominal Core, Propulsion engineers in Atlanta could collaborate with test engineers at HEAT in real time to dive deeper into issues and resolve them faster.

Meanwhile, the flight software team used Nominal’s validation checks nearly every day. They were able to stream simulation data to Nominal to test the performance of their new builds, leading to near-instant feedback and quick turn modifications to the flight software.

Integrated test operations from Edwards AFB

First flight is a massively complex event. The whole company rallied to watch results come in through Nominal.

The flight test team ran operations at Edwards AFB, streaming data from both the aircraft and ground control station to Nominal Core. Nominal enabled engineers from Hermeus’ Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Jacksonville sites to watch their relevant telemetry channels during the flight.

Engineers of every discipline had access to real-time data. Each streamed data into their customized views in Nominal Core – monitoring and commenting on their subsystems throughout the duration of the test.

As their first flight progressed, every engineer at Hermeus understood what was happening and why. As if the entire team had custom dashboards right on the flight deck.

The Results

With Nominal, Hermeus:

• Designed & built the Quarterhorse Mk 1 in 7 months
• Closed the loop between test and validation for rapid iteration of hardware and software builds
• Democratized access to real-time telemetry and automated alerting – across teams, locations, and systems.

Powered by continuous test and iteration, Hermeus set a new standard for the pace of aerospace innovation.

Looking Ahead

Hermeus is already developing the Mk 2 – targeting flight within a year. They are re-configuring their manufacturing to be wholly controlled by Nominal Connect, and streaming all of their test data into Nominal Core – from the component manufacturing line to flight test. Together, Hermeus and Nominal are making the impossible routine.

Each milestone compounds: faster cycles, tighter feedback loops, greater ambition. As Hermeus pushes the boundaries of what’s possible, Nominal will be there every step of the way.

Engine test. Taxi. Flight. Again. And again. And again