Originally Posted by
Less Hair
Hypersonic is something military going on. If the military funds the engines there might be the technical possibilty of future commercial secondary uses.
At this time it's more some marketing phantasy maybe to show how fancy working in good old engineering is compared to Google or similar.
There is indeed a push under way for hypersonics, specifically weapons. It iseven the cover story of the June 2018 issue of Aerospace America, the AIAA publication.
To work on advanced weapons requires clearances, which take years to obtain, so having the recruits work on an unclassified civil development is a practical way to find the most competent even before they can start the real work.