AJ Piplica (@AJ_Piplica), founder and CEO of Hermeus, joins Lucas Bagno and Ian Cinnamon on this episode. Takeaways:- Every time there has been an acceleration in the speed of transportation in history, high GDP growth has followed.- A switch to hypersonic transportation would unlock $4T in growth.- In the future the key differentiator in air travel will be speed, rather than comfort.- It’s currently extremely expensive to do flight testing at hypersonic speeds — $5-10M for only a few seconds of data.- In the 40s and through the Cold War, there were new aircrafts released every few years, but since then the pace of innovation has slowed significantly.- Cost-plus contracts are very comfortable for companies and create perverse incentives.- We are in the midst of a techno-economic pursuit in hypersonic transport and whichever country gets there first gets to write the rules.- The immense amount of political strife in this country keeps AJ up at night but unity amongst smaller cohorts of people working on challenges at a global scale keeps him optimistic.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary onthe latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup