Building Long-Range Supersonic Planes | Ian Brooke, Astro Mechanica

Brooke explains why supersonic flight has been economically unviable and his strategy to make it affordable. He targets $10,000 for SF-Paris flights (vs $200,000+ for Gulfstream), starting with niche high-value markets before scaling to consumer applications, following the Tesla roadmap of expensive-to-affordable.

• •Concorde failed due to low utilization, high operating costs, and small fleet size - you can't go straight to airliners
• •Current Gulfstream charter costs $200k+ for SF-Paris; Astro Mechanica targets under $10k for same route
• •Strategy: Start with niche government/space applications, then private jets, eventually scale to airline economics
• •Vertical integration necessary when changing everything - need control over engines, airframes, and operations
• •Private jets have low utilization and maintenance-dominated costs, requiring different optimization approach

Brooke's core engineering philosophy centers on designing for the full lifecycle, including maintenance and repair. He emphasizes front-loading design work to minimize long-term costs, drawing from experience with poorly-designed aircraft systems that are expensive to fix despite cheap initial parts.

• •Cost per use matters more than initial cost - design for the full lifecycle including maintenance
• •Skilled labor time is expensive and often invisible in initial cost calculations
• •Turbine engines last 10x longer than piston engines despite lower thermal efficiency - reliability trumps raw performance
• •Design parts to be easily replaceable by non-experts, not requiring craftsperson-level skills
• •Philosophy: expensive upfront design work pays dividends through reduced lifetime maintenance costs

The company's fundamental innovation is a hyper-electric engine architecture that solves both the economics and technical challenges of supersonic flight. Originally developed to make private jets cheaper through reduced maintenance, it unexpectedly enabled affordable supersonic capability.

• •Started working on affordable private jets at airliner per-passenger-mile costs
• •Hyper-electric architecture primarily reduces maintenance costs - critical for low-utilization aircraft
• •Architecture accidentally solved supersonic economics by addressing both drag and engine efficiency problems
• •High-speed engines traditionally worse than they could be, compounding the fuel consumption problem
• •Technical breakthrough came from solving private jet economics, not pursuing supersonic for its own sake

Brooke outlines the staged approach to building the company, starting with government/space applications that don't require economies of scale, then moving to private aviation, and eventually commercial airliners. Each stage builds the financial engine to fund the next.

• •Can't start with airliners - need prior success and economies of scale first
• •Stage 1: Niche expensive applications (fighter jets, space launch) that work at small scale
• •Stage 2: Private jet market serving 'first class' economics before scaling to business/economy
• •Operating charter flights with existing aircraft to build operational muscle memory
• •Company feels completely different every 6 months as it scales from 12 to 40+ people

Brooke shares his multi-year struggle to raise funding, getting rejected from YC 4-5 times between 2017-2022. Everything changed when he stopped trying to tell the story and instead built a physical demonstrator, proving the concept works.

• •Rejected from YC 4-5 times starting in 2017 - storytelling wasn't his strength
• •Markets tanking in 2022 forced him to build demonstrator under duress
• •Within months of building physical prototype, years of fundraising struggles resolved
• •Snowball effect: prototype → credible engineers join → better team → more capital → better people
• •Key insight: 'I am pretty good at building things' - should have led with that instead of storytelling

Brooke describes his unusual cognitive approach - thinking in shapes and spatial relationships rather than words, with massive parallel processing of tangentially related concepts. He connects this to quantum consciousness research and explains how it informs his design work.

• •Thinks in shapes and spatial relationships, not words - struggles with verbal expression
• •Visualizes engine operation with different 'filters' - molecular level, kinetic energy, spatial flow
• •Very non-linear thinker with parallel processing of many concepts simultaneously
• •Built extensive semantic tree over time - can only retain concepts that map onto existing framework
• •Interested in neuroscience and quantum consciousness as alternative career path

In 2005, Brooke envisioned electric aircraft using RC motors and lithium batteries on Pipistrel airframes. The Cafe Foundation executed this idea at his home airport in 2007, creating a pattern of being 'a few years behind the wave' that still frustrates him.

• •Had early contact with high-power lithium batteries and brushless motors through RC aircraft in 2005
• •Designed electric conversion for Pipistrel Sinus/Virus but was too young to execute
• •Cafe Foundation built similar concept at his airport in 2007 - felt he missed the boat
• •Constant anxiety about missing technical waves and someone else executing his ideas first
• •Frustration with Elon doing similar things 'but not the way I wanted to do it'

Brooke discusses assembling his leadership team, including Ashley Pellzel (ex-Bridgewater COO) as his 'Gwen Shotwell', Matt Perkins (11-13 years at SpaceX), and Greg Crowland (Chief Engineer of XB-1 at Boom). Quality of team became self-reinforcing proof point for investors.

• •Ashley Pellzel (COO of Bridgewater tech group) joined as COO - exactly the person he needed
• •Matt Perkins brought best of SpaceX culture despite being electrical/software vs mechanical focus
• •Greg Crowland from Boom brought supersonic aircraft expertise
• •Team quality became proof point for VCs - 'how did he convince these sharp people?'
• •Wonders if earlier success would have prevented finding this specific team

Discussion of YC research showing determination as the #1 founder trait, and Brooke's relationship with suffering. He doesn't enjoy suffering but can't stop pursuing the vision, constantly raising the bar even after wins.

• •YC found determination (not technical/sales ability) was best predictor of success
• •Brooke is patient and can 'hang on for a while' but also quickly dismisses dead ends
• •Doesn't enjoy suffering like Elon might - just really wants the end result
• •Can't celebrate wins - immediately raises the bar and moves goalposts
• •Cursed to keep building even if he had enough money to just fly Gulfstreams

Brooke reflects on his identity formation, from being raised by pilots to finding fulfillment through building things that express his vision. He discusses the importance of community, picking customers who appreciate the work, and seeing his products as extensions of himself.

• •Raised by mentor (American Airlines captain from age 13) and community of old pilots
• •Early manufacturing business validated when strangers bought his motorcycle parts - 'this is what I'm built to do'
• •Astro Mechanica is his way of making the world he envisions - believes everyone will like it too
• •Taking people on first private jet flights creates awe - wants to bring that experience to everyone
• •Sees himself as expressing his soul through work - wants customers to feel the thoughtfulness