E6 - Hypersonic Airplanes

Hermeus CEO AJ Piplica joins us to talk about the hypersonic airplanes they’re building, breaking the SR-71 speed record, their go-to-market strategy, the parallels to Top Gun Maverick, and a ton of other stuff.----Links* Sign up for our amazing newsletter https://www.themerge.co * Support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/the_merge * AJ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajpiplica/* AJ Twitter https://twitter.com/AJ_Piplica* Hermeus https://www.hermeus.com/* Hermeus Twitter https://twitter.com/HermeusCorp----Follow us on...* Instagram https://www.instagram.com/merge_newsletter * Facebook https://www.facebook.com/themergenews * Twitter https://twitter.com/MergeNewsletter * LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/themerge * Website https://www.themerge.co ----Show Notes(00:57) intro(5:45) AJ’s origin story (7:25) how old were you?(8:24) not a space person(10:11) sequestration(10:48) missiles to aircraft (12:41) Monospony the board game(13:12) Raising money the right way(15:04) the name?(16:42) how Hermeus was funded(18:33) AJ loves our ChatGPT rap song(19:16) AJ's spicy take on defense profits(22:06) climbing the food chain(23:14) using a T-38 engine to go Mach 4(24:08) Top Gun Maverick(25:52) Quarterhorse(28:52) breaking the SR-71 speed record(31:04) Darkhorse(33:41) avoiding the Valley of Death(40:09) lobbying is the price of entry(41:22) AJ's Christmas Tree(46:05) why do it at all?(49:00) Hermeus has one competitor(51:28) Halcyon(55:51) how the Pentagon prices things(59:52) outro