Balerion Senior Associate Aidan Daoussis sits down with AJ Piplica, Co-Founder and CEO of Hermeus, a company working at the frontier of hypersonic aviation. Hermeus is building reusable, high-Mach aircraft using a development philosophy that looks more like early rocket startups or the aerospace programs of the 1950s than traditional defense primes.
In this conversation, AJ walks through the origin of Hermeus, why hypersonics stalled for decades in the U.S., and how a hardware-rich, iterative approach to flight testing is enabling dramatically faster learning cycles. The discussion spans national security, manufacturing, regulation, and the long-term commercial implications of making the world “regional” again through high-speed flight.
00:00 – Welcome & IntroductionAidan introduces AJ Piplica and frames Hermeus’s mission in hypersonic aviation and national security.
01:00 – AJ’s Background & the Origin of HermeusAJ traces his path from aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech into hypersonics, and why the field became his life’s focus.
04:00 – Why Hypersonics Matter NowHow U.S. hypersonics shifted from research to strategic urgency as China and Russia accelerated real-world testing.
07:00 – The Core Insight: Flight Testing as the BottleneckWhy lack of frequent, affordable flight testing has stalled progress—and why Hermeus built its company around fixing that.
10:30 – Iterative Development: Lessons from the 1950s and SpaceflightReintroducing rapid build-fly-learn cycles to aircraft development, and why airplanes fell behind rockets and satellites.
13:00 – The Quarterhorse Program ExplainedA breakdown of Hermeus’s aircraft roadmap: one program, multiple aircraft, each de-risking a specific technical challenge.
16:00 – Defense First, Commercial LaterWhy uncrewed defense applications come first—and how that creates a foundation for future commercial hypersonic flight.
18:30 – How the U.S. Lost Its Lead in HypersonicsLessons from the X-43 and X-51 programs, budget cuts, risk aversion, and publishing away hard-won knowledge.
22:00 – What Hypersonics Unlock Beyond WeaponsFrom high-speed cargo to passenger travel, and how shrinking time changes global economics.
25:00 – Concorde, Apollo, and the Cost of Not IteratingWhy Concorde wasn’t a failure—and what was lost by stopping instead of iterating.
28:00 – Building a Hardware Company Without BillionsHow Hermeus started with almost nothing, attracted top talent, and earned early conviction from investors.
31:00 – Manufacturing for Speed, Not PerfectionWhy Hermeus prioritizes simple metal structures and margin over optimization in early aircraft.
35:00 – Regulation as a Design ProblemHow Hermeus works with the FAA using a “rocket-style” safety mindset for uncrewed aircraft.
40:00 – First-Principles Thinking in Regulated IndustriesAJ on questioning assumptions, reading the law, and finding faster paths through complex systems.
44:00 – Leadership, Team, and Taking the LeapWhat it takes to lead a company tackling extreme technical risk—and why the downside was worth it.
47:00 – Closing ReflectionsWhy seemingly impossible engineering problems may be simpler than we think.
