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. To give a sneak preview of that next engine, here's the work going on today as we machine a compressor section.

It's fitting our machinist has a Spirit of California shirt on today. This all happening in San Francisco (I'm born and raised in the bay).