FAST Aerospace has secured a €500,000 “proof of concept investment” to begin development of a prototype ramjet engine for its carrier aircraft.
FAST, which was officially founded in March 2024, is developing an air-launched rocket system called HyperDart, which is designed to be capable of launching a 250-kilogram payload into low Earth orbit.
The HyperDart launch system involves a 16-meter-long remotely piloted aircraft that carries an expendable rocket to an altitude of 25 kilometers. The rocket’s Metalox engine ignites, delivering the payload into space. The delivery aircraft then returns to base for refueling and installation of a new expendable rocket. The company calls the system partially reusable.
FAST announced on July 12 that it had secured a €500,000 “proof-of-concept investment” from Galaxia, an aerospace technology transfer hub established by CDP Venture Capital. The company said the funding will go towards developing a prototype ramjet engine that would enable its carrier aircraft to fly at speeds of around Mach 5.
“Thanks to this investment, we are starting to design and build scaled-down versions of the full-size engines we will use,” explains Lorenzo Beggio, co-founder and CEO of FAST. “This type of propulsion device requires certain extreme conditions to ignite, which is only possible through a dedicated test bench that we have already designed.”
The company hopes to fire up its ramjet engine prototype for the first time by the end of 2025. It plans to develop and fly two smaller prototypes, called MiniDart and SuperDart, before attempting initial testing of the HyperDart in 2029.
