Boom Supersonic and Hermeus companies, which develop supersonic and hypersonic commercial aircraft respectively, use SpaceX Starlink satellite internet in the process of testing new products. One of the companies installed a Starlink terminal on its prototype, the other on its escort aircraft. It also shows that satellite internet can operate at very high speeds.

According to AJ Piplica, CEO of Georgia-based Hermeus, which is trying to produce the world’s first civilian hypersonic aircraft, the prototype of the unmanned aerial vehicle called Quarterhorse Mk1 is currently being successfully tested to provide communications involving the Starlink system. As for Boom Supersonic, the company used the Starlink terminal on a surveillance aircraft used in testing of the XB-1 prototype aircraft. The terminal operated at a flight speed of Mach 0.95 in preparation for providing communications during the online broadcast of supersonic test flights.

In a recent post by Hermeus on social media X, the company installed and tested the Starlink terminal on its aircraft in record time. The company is developing Halcyon, which it hopes will be the first hypersonic passenger plane. The company is currently testing the Quarterhorse Mk1 prototype as well as the Darkhorse military drone to build this aircraft. This prototype was the first designed for flight testing. In March this year, Hermeus introduced the Mk1 and announced that takeoff and landing would be tested in the first stage, and the tests would be held at the US Air Force Edwards Base.

Later, the company president announced that the integration of the Starlink terminal into the prototype aircraft was possible in a record time of 17 days. Hermeus engineers’ work to integrate the Starlink terminal into the aircraft began when the company needed a beyond-line-of-sight drone control system (BVLOS) for its Mk1 prototype. Two days after placing the order, SpaceX delivered the terminal, seven days were spent simulating the integration of the terminal into the Mk1, and six days later the integration was fully completed. Shortly thereafter, tests were conducted in the wind tunnel and the Starlink antenna was placed on the top of the aircraft, just after the vertical stabilizer. The next day, the company conducted a successful ground test of the Mk1 remote control. It is planned to test the operation of all subsystems by the end of the year, and the first flight tests in unmanned mode will take place in 2025.

While Hermeus was preparing to test Starlink in the sky, Boom Supersonic did not sit still. The company’s CEO, Blake Scholl, said that it took 15 days to integrate the Starlink terminal into the T-38 aircraft systems. The company plans to use Starlink satellite internet to livestream the first supersonic test flight of the XB-1, a 1:3 scale prototype of the Overture commercial airliner. This flight should take place next year.