GE Aerospace to advance hypersonic test bed development for HyCAT programme
Credit GE Aerospace
GE Aerospace has been awarded a contract by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), part of the Department of War, to advance development of a hypersonic test bed under the Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities (HyCAT) programme.
The award marks the next phase of development for a liquid-fueled hypersonic test platform, building on initial funding awarded in 2023 to support concept development and team formation.
Under this latest phase, GE Aerospace will design and develop a combined booster and cruiser system, together forming an all-up-round (AUR) test bed, to enable hypersonic testing.
Since 2023, the programme has progressed through multiple development milestones.
Following initial concept development, GE Aerospace advanced subsystem refinement and evaluation in 2024, and moved into preliminary design review of the all-up-round in 2025.
This newly awarded phase in 2026 will focus on full integration of the AUR, along with first qualification and component-level testing of key subsystems, GE Aerospace said in a statement.
