>Sassie Duggleby and her husband, Andrew Duggleby, founded Venus Aerospace nearly five years ago with the long-term goal of developing powerful rotating detonation engines and building a hypersonic aircraft that could carry perhaps a dozen passengers and travel at astonishingly fast speeds worldwide.
As an engineering project it sounds really cool, but is the application really commercial travel? I would have thought the military would be far more interested and much better funded.
It's a smokescreen for hypersonic missile development. It's a common tactic. I knew someone who worked on a novel satellite surveillance system. Their pitch was that it would allow them to engage in futures trading because the resolution of their satellites would allow unique insights into global trade for certain markets using realtime optical imaging.
The guy was former Lockheed. One night at dinner I told him to cut the BS and that their real goal was to target military/government contracts. He said "off the record" this is correct. This an unspoken goal by everyone involved - management, investors, etc.
My understanding is it can be hard to position yourself as a defense company as a start up if you don't already have a foothold in the space.
Just like all the start-ups building autonomous drones for "search and rescue" missions. There might be more of those companies than people who go missing in national parks each year.
Tbh military surveillance satellites are used for economic espionage, not just military. The US used to, and still does I'm sure, keep track on agricultural yields and similar, because that information can inform strategic decisions and negotiations.
>Their pitch was that it would allow them to engage in futures trading because the resolution of their satellites would allow unique insights into global trade for certain markets using realtime optical imaging.
I mean, that pitch is an accurate claim if the insights in mind are "We just told the pentagon to blow up these pixels". That tends to affect global trade and futures markets.
From the bottom of the article:
"We're actively engaged with US defense and national security agencies as well as commercial partners exploring hypersonic applications in logistics, aerospace, and future mobility—including large primes," she said. "The enthusiasm we’re seeing reflects a broad recognition that Venus’s technology can unlock new operational and economic possibilities across multiple markets."
What are ‘large primes’ here?
The amount of times the word "hypersonics" was mentioned should be pretty clear sign they are aiming for DOD money.