Hermeus, an aerospace startup that landed a U.S. Air Force contract for the initial development of a hypersonic business jet for presidential travel, secured a 110,000-sq-ft factory in Atlanta to serve as an aircraft assembly facility. The location also will be used for light manufacturing and structures testing, the company said. In addition, the space will be the site of the Hermeus headquarters, housing hundreds of employees.

"Vertical integration is a core tenet at Hermeus," said founder and CTO Glenn Case."In addition to the flight-scale propulsion test capability at our Site 27 Test Facility, this factory will allow us to build our first aircraft—conducting structures, avionics, and other major subsystem testing all in-house."

The location expands the Hermeus presence in the Atlanta region, joining a Hermeus test facility nearby at Dekalb-Peachtree Airport. "Atlanta offers us a unique opportunity to grow into a large, affordable facility within a thriving urban environment," said founder and CEO AJ Piplica. "Georgia has a deep history in aviation, and we're committed to growing our team right here as we build the future."

Founded in 2018 and developing a team comprising aerospace veterans of SpaceX, Blue Origin, NASA, Boeing, GE, and Honeywell, Hermeus has ambitions to develop a Mach 5 aircraft. In addition to working with the U.S. Air Force, the company is collaborating with NASA on high-speed technologies.