Ian Brooke

I've kept a pretty low (online) profile of what I'm building, but word's getting out. My company Astro Mechanica has invented a new kind of jet engine. Unlike any existing engine, it's efficient at every speed. Because it's efficient at every speed, we can use it in a new way: as the first stage of an orbital launch vehicle. The resulting platform will get payloads to orbit dramatically cheaper than all-rocket systems - among many possible applications. The key insight is to use electric motors to drive a compressor. That way we can make it spin at any speed, allowing it to "adapt" to it's airspeed and combustion cycle. One of the coolest parts: the video below is of a demonstrator my team and I built last year. We already have a new engine with 10x the thrust that will be complete next month.