It's sleek and shimmering, gliding through sun-tinted clouds. It's moving at nearly four times the speed of sound – faster than the famous SR-71 Blackbird, which set the airspeed record some 50 years ago.
Its name is Quarterhorse, its mission is to be the world's first high-Mach autonomous aircraft, and its creator is the U.S. startup company Hermeus.
But powering the futuristic aircraft and its ambitious goals is an engine familiar to aviation enthusiasts – the Pratt & Whitney F100.
Rather than build a new engine, Hermeus will use a modified F100, a propulsion system with 30 million flight hours and a track record aboard the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Falcon, which celebrates 50 years of flight in 2024.
Now, the engine is looking toward its next 50 years.
"Fifty years of life combined with the opportunity to remain in service for another 50 years is something that's unique," said Josh Goodman, senior director of the F100 program. "Pratt likes to do hard things, and utilizing the F100 in this solution gives us the opportunity to once again go solve hard problems."