Starfighters Space Announces Availability of Airborne Aerodynamic Test Platform for U.S. Defense and Aerospace Community

Article content

Fleet of supersonic F-104 aircraft provides real-world aerodynamic testing conditions unavailable in ground-based facilities, as demand for hypersonic test capacity accelerates across the U.S. defense enterprise

Article content

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Starfighters Space, Inc. (“Starfighters” or the “Company”) (NYSE American: FJET), the innovative aerospace company, owner and operator of the world’s largest fleet of commercial supersonic aircraft, today announced the availability of its F-104 Starfighter platform as an airborne aerodynamic test environment for the U.S. defense and aerospace community.

Article content

Article content

Article content

A Wind Tunnel in the Sky

Article content

Article content

Starfighters’ fleet of modified F-104 aircraft functions as an airborne test platform capable of replicating aerodynamic conditions that fixed facilities cannot fully reproduce. The F-104’s flight profile allows it to simulate the aerodynamic conditions of the first 30 seconds of a vertical rocket launch, a phase of flight that has historically been among the most difficult to test accurately in a static environment.

Article content

The platform exposes test articles to turbulent, variable atmospheric conditions representative of actual operational flight, and can carry models closer to production size than most ground-based tunnels permit. Testing complexity can be layered simultaneously, including g-forces, humidity, and dynamic pressure variations, in a single flight profile. The result is a test environment that narrows the gap between laboratory simulation and real-world flight, delivered from a platform that is operational today.

Article content

A single 45-minute Starfighters mission can include a 10-minute Mach 2 test window, generating the equivalent of about 20 traditional 30-second ground wind tunnel runs and compressing what would otherwise take about ten days in a fixed facility into one flight.

Article content

“Every generation has a moment where infrastructure either keeps up with ambition, or it does not. We are in that moment for both hypersonic and space development, and Starfighters Space, with our hardware and supersonic experience, is working to help close that gap. We fly tomorrow,” said Tim Franta, Chief Executive Officer of Starfighters Space.

Article content

Growing Demand for U.S. Test Capacity

Article content

The announcement comes as demand for aerodynamic and hypersonic test infrastructure is accelerating across the U.S. defense enterprise. NASA recently completed its first major new wind tunnel in more than 40 years. The Air Force, Navy, and Army each carry active budget line items for wind tunnel construction, reactivation, or modernization in FY 2026, and a federal sources-sought notice for hypersonic test facility reactivation drew responses as recently as March 2026.

Article content

The scale of investment reflects a straightforward reality: the United States is developing next-generation hypersonic systems faster than it is building the infrastructure to test them.

Article content

Proven Platform, Established Customer Base

Article content

Starfighters currently serves customers including Lockheed Martin, GE, Innoveering, Meggitt, Space Florida, and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. Flight operations are conducted from the company’s hangar at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, one of the longest runways in the world. The company is expanding its footprint with a second operating location at the Midland International Air & Space Port in Texas, where aircraft and engines are already on-site.

Article content

Article content

Customers interested in our Wind Tunnel in the Sky are encouraged to contact the company at: [email protected].

Article content

About Starfighters Space, Inc.

Article content

Starfighters Space, Inc. is the only commercial company in the world with the ability to fly payloads at sustained MACH 2+ and with the capability to launch those payloads to space. Starfighters Space is an organization committed to participating in high-demand commercial space activities. Located at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Company operates a fleet of modified supersonic aircraft operationally configurable to act as the first stage lifting platform to carry payloads up to 45,000 feet for air launch to space. Additional activities include support research, pilot training, space flight training, and advanced scientific efforts including hypersonic testing as part of air launch partner development programs. Starfighters Space is working to position its capability to become the most cost-effective launch provider in the sector.

Article content

Article content

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Article content

:

Article content

Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, the information presented in this news release constitutes “forward-looking statements” as such term is used in applicable United States securities laws. These statements relate to analysis and other information that are based on forecasts or future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any other statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as “expects”, or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, “plans”, “estimates” or “intends”, or stating that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and should be viewed as “forward-looking statements”. We have based these forward-looking statements on information currently available to the Company, assumptions the Company believes are reasonable and our current expectations about future events or performance. While we believe these expectations are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. Our actual future results may differ materially from those discussed or implied in our forward-looking statements for various reasons. Factors that could contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the ability to obtain the necessary permits and approvals to operate, the Company’s ability to develop new products and/or services, the approval of the Company’s application for a launch license and the timing thereof, the Company’s expansion to Midland, Texas, the adoption by the market of the Company’s method of satellite deployment, the Company’s continued business arrangements, market trends and competition in the Company’s industry, the future diversification of the Company’s revenue streams and the assumptions underlying any of the foregoing, and other factors discussed in the Company’s filings with the Commission. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this news release and in any document referred to in this news release. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made only as of the date hereof. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of any offer to buy the Company’s securities.

Article content

Article content

Article content

Article content

View source version on businesswire.com:

Article content

Article content

Article content

Contacts

Article content

Media

Article content

Article content

Article content

Investors

Article content

Article content

Article content