United Airlines Ventures (UAV), the venture capital arm of United Airlines, is to invest in aerospace startup Astro Mechanica.
UAV was established in 2021 to invest in early-stage start-up companies focused on innovative technologies.
Astro Mechanica's engine, Duality, is being designed to utilise a hybrid electric architecture to optimise performance across a wide range of flight speeds and profiles, which would create an engine that would be efficient from takeoff to Mach 3+.
With these changes, Astro Mechanica is developing the world's first supersonic aircraft that has transpacific capability.
"Astro Mechanica is developing an adaptive engine concept for strategic military and commercial applications, addressing the challenging yet worthwhile pursuit of supersonic flight," said Mukul Hariharan, managing partner at United Airlines Ventures. "UAV is excited to join Astro Mechanica's renowned investment partners to support its exceptional management team as they advance their engine technology and progress towards their first aircraft prototype."
Duality™ is designed to separate the propulsion units from the turboshaft engine by using electric motors.
This allows it to behave like a turbofan at slower speeds, a turbojet at faster speeds just below supersonic, and switch to a ramjet at very high supersonic speeds.