Bronco takes Velontra to the forefront of the hypersonic frontier, the company said. This unique hypersonic propulsion system is ready to be integrated into small unmanned aerial vehicles. Its power can accelerate a drone well past the sound barrier, thus living up to its name.
While their focus is on UAVs, Keane said the hypersonic propulsion system has civilian and military applications and could be the next step in developing a space plane. He said their target pricing is $1 million for a supersonic system, and $5 million for a hypersonic system.
“Now that the wind tunnel testing has been completed, we plan to do flight testing next year,” Keane said. “We still have a long way to do to develop a space plane.”
Founded in 2021, Velontra was selected to participate in the prestigious Silicon Valley’s Y-Combinator. The organization has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs and assisted them with acquiring venture capital. Besides Velontra, some of its “graduates” include wildly successful endeavors such as Airbnb, Uber, Instacart, Dropbox, and DoorDash.
The company is based at the Warren County Airport. Keane said Lebanon has been a great location and “it’s pretty cool” developing their propulsion system close to where the Wright Brothers developed their first airplanes.
“We have more than doubled our company size in the last six months, and our scientists/engineers have advanced Velontra’s hypersonic propulsion system, making our technology a premier market leader in the U.S. as we compete with the hypersonic capabilities of China and Russia,” Keane said.
The afterburner is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, primarily high-performance fighter aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust for flight, takeoff and combat. It enables speed in excess of Mach 2 without increasing drag. In ramjet mode, this is increased to over Mach 5.
“Velontra is a nimble, top-quality and low-cost alternative to traditional aviation organizations that get bogged down with high overhead and administrative layers that slow progress,” said Joel Darin, Velontra’s chief technology officer. “Our propulsion technology is an advanced start-of-the-art system enabling capabilities and applications never before seen.”
The Bronco propulsion system will be the horsepower behind Velontra’s hypersonic aircraft. This first prototype will evolve into the system that will take Velontra’s Space Plane into Low Earth Orbit more efficiently and reliably than has ever been done before.
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