Latest news with #RotatingDetonationRocketEngine
Forbes
30-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Secret To Leading Innovation With Thriving Teams Is Hidden Grit
We do this not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy We don't do this because it's easy. We do this because we thought it would be easy. That line came to me in a meme from a colleague during one of the hardest stretches of my time on the leadership team at Venus Aerospace, a company developing reusable hypersonic aircraft designed to fly you across the Pacific in under two hours. I now serve as an advisor to the company, but back then I was deep in the day-to-day: capital uncertainty, shifting priorities, and scenario planning for what felt like the 14th time. No one signs up for a moonshot to argue over budget spreadsheets. They join to build. But that week, belief felt like the scarcest resource of all. I remembered that meme again last week, when Venus completed a historic flight test of its Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine, becoming the first U.S. company to prove this next-gen propulsion system in the air. A huge technical win. Rightfully celebrated. But for those of us who've been inside the effort, it didn't feel like a singular moment of triumph. It felt like a quiet exhale shared between people who had endured the technical gauntlet—and the emotional one—and held on when it would've been easier not to. The technology is brutally hard. But trying to build something unprecedented—without breaking the people building it—adds a second, quieter layer of difficulty. Everyone knows this kind of work is difficult. But we still misunderstand where the difficulty lies. We assume the challenge is technical complexity. But in reality, it's the emotional and relational toll of doing something under pressure, without precedent, and with limited room for error. That misunderstanding doesn't just distort expectations. It makes success more rare—because it causes people to give up too soon. Here's what I've learned about what actually makes hard things hard. At a startup doing something new, nothing is established. Not just the product—the roles, the systems, the culture—it's all being built in real time. That ambiguity can fuel creativity, but it can also drain morale. Decisions that would be defaults in a mature company become full-blown debates. Passionate people burn out solving problems they weren't hired for. A colleague on the executive team once said: 'The definition of great work is solving difficult problems with non-difficult people.' But when the problem is hard enough, even the best people become difficult—not because they're wrong, but because it's costing them. That's when story becomes your most important leadership tool. When belief starts to fray, the story you tell—about what you're doing and why—either sustains you or breaks you. It doesn't mean ignoring reality. But it does mean guarding attention. Because attention is social. And if 'this is broken' becomes the dominant narrative, it doesn't just describe the problem—it magnifies it. Leadership in those moments means choosing what not to amplify. In a company growing fast and flying blind, every stage demands new skills. And usually, no one is fully ready—including the leaders. Some thrive in early chaos but stall when structure is needed. Others bring polish but struggle without resources. If you lead too far ahead, you build what you can't afford. If you lead from behind, you stall progress. You have to do two things at once: This is especially true for founders. Yes, they enter rooms few ever access. But they also carry the weight. People expect them to believe harder, fix faster, and stay composed—while learning on the fly. Sometimes that means firing friends. Sometimes it means ignoring well-meaning advice. Sometimes it just means showing up—again—when you're not sure you're enough. One of Venus' most strategic breakthroughs wasn't technical—it was logistical. The industry assumes engine testing has to happen in remote areas. But we asked: What if we could test on-site? That single question—born of necessity—let us test faster, cheaper, and more frequently than anyone else. It wasn't genius. It was constraint reimagined. When pressure is unrelenting, what holds people together isn't just shared goals. It's shared humanity. Late nights around the founders' dinner table—debating fantasy novels, defending the brilliance of Highlander—became rituals that sustained us. Jokes from those nights found their way into slide decks. We awarded prizes for the best dad jokes. When one teammate suffered a personal loss, the team rallied with tears and resolve. Often, it wasn't strategy that kept someone from walking away. It was being talked off the ledge by a friend who didn't even like you at first—but who now understood exactly what you were carrying. You play every card you've got. And you just hope you don't run out too soon. Funny enough, this isn't just a story about rocket engines (what an interesting sentence to write, by the way). It's about the human engine behind every breakthrough—and what it really takes to lead through the fog. So yes, we're proud of the technical win. But I'm just as proud of what didn't make the press release: Because the truth is: we didn't really think it would be easy. We just hoped it would be worth it. Turns out, it is. When the world moves faster than most teams can process, the leaders who will matter most aren't just the ones who can think clearly. They're the ones who can stay human—when it would be easier not to.
Metro
14-05-2025
- Business
- Metro
Successful test flight for company aiming to travel London to New York in 1 hour
Venus Aerospace says it has successfully tested a rocket engine that could make hypersonic jet travel a reality. It is hoped the engine could enable planes to travel four to six times the speed of sound from a conventional airport runway, making going from London to New York comparable to a trip to France. The Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico this morning, after months of testing in controlled conditions. Sarah 'Sassie' Duggleby, CEO and co-founder, said: 'This is the moment we've been working toward for five years. We've proven that this technology works – not just in simulations or the lab, but in the air.' Their ultimate goal is to develop the Stargazer M4, a Mach 4 reusable passenger aircraft, that would fly close to the edge of space. Speaking with Metro before the launch, Ms Duggleby said the key difference with their engine compared to traditional rockets is that it is more efficient, so can carry less fuel. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Calling the tech the 'holy grail' of rocket engines, Ms Duggleby told Metro the main challenge was stopping it getting so hot that it melted. 'My favorite analogy is it's like lighting a fire in a wax fireplace, and you have to keep the wax from melting,' she said. 'It's really hot. So it's almost like you would send ice water through the wax to pull out the heat, and you keep doing that over and over again.' She founded the company with rocket scientist husband Andrew Duggleby in 2020, and since then has secured millions of pounds in investment, and interest from Nasa. If test flights continue to go to plan, a jet could potentially travel at 3,600mph and Ms Duggleby said that going from San Francisco to Tokyo could then become a 'day trip' in two hours, compared to the 13 hours it is currently. Scott McLaughlin, executive director at Spaceport America, said: 'Spaceport America was created to make space history, and Venus Aerospace delivered a milestone moment for hypersonics today. 'Getting a rotating detonation rocket engine to the launch pad is an achievement few thought possible in such a short time. We're thrilled to host innovators like Venus, whose breakthroughs are redefining what's possible in spaceflight.' The technology could go on to be used in both defence and commercial flight. Mrs Duggleby said the experience of flying in a plane this fast would be much the same as being in a plane currently (except with a better view, as you would be further up). Humans wouldn't suffer too much because we can withstand travelling quickly as long as it happens gradually. More Trending 'As long as the human body has gentle acceleration up to that speed, then we don't care if we're going 1,000 miles per hour, or 500 miles per hour or 20 miles per hour,' she said. Andrew Duggleby, co-founder and chief technology officer, said: 'Rotating detonation has been a long-sought gain in performance. 'Venus' RDRE solved the last but critical steps to harness the theoretical benefits. 'We've built an engine that not only runs, but runs reliably and efficiently—and that's what makes it scalable. This is the foundation we need that, combined with a ramjet, completes the system from take-off to sustained hypersonic flight.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Life and everything we know in the universe will end sooner than we thought MORE: Huge chunk of Soviet rocket may have broken up over southern England MORE: Out-of-control Soviet spacecraft crashes back to Earth after 50 years
