Destinus

Destinus is a Swiss aerospace startup founded in 2021 by Mikhail Kokorich, a physicist and serial entrepreneur who previously founded Astroscale, a space debris removal company. The company is headquartered in Payerne, Switzerland, near the Payerne Air Base, with additional R&D facilities in Madrid, Spain, and Munich, Germany. Destinus aims to build the world's first hypersonic passenger aircraft that can fly from Frankfurt to Sydney in under five hours, using liquid hydrogen as fuel to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.

The company's name is a blend of "destination" and "destiny," reflecting its mission to make ultra-fast, sustainable air travel a reality. Destinus has raised approximately $50 million in funding, including a $34 million Series A round led by European investors like Redalpine and Plural Platform, plus €12 million in grants from the Spanish government for hydrogen propulsion research. In 2023, the company successfully test-flighted a subscale prototype, the Destinus S, to validate its aerodynamic design, and in mid-2024 it completed a public test flight reaching Mach 0.8. A larger hydrogen-powered prototype, the Destinus E, is slated for first flight in 2026.

Beyond passenger travel, Destinus is developing dual-use technologies for defense and energy, including high-speed drones and hydrogen engines for military applications. In early 2024, it partnered with the Spanish Ministry of Defense to develop hypersonic drone technology for surveillance. The company's team now exceeds 100 engineers and scientists across Europe, positioning itself as a European champion in the hypersonic aviation race, distinct from competitors like Hermeus and Venus Aerospace by its focus on hydrogen fuel and net-zero goals.[edit]