What people always underestimate is the amount of time, and money, it takes to get anything developed, built and certified in aerospace. And that is for even sm

What people always underestimate is the amount of time, and money, it takes to get anything developed, built and certified in aerospace. And that is for even small modifications done on existing design by the major players. Starting from scratch, already a new design is hard enough not to talk about a new company, is even harder. Just timeline wise, realistically you talk about around 5 years for something new, start to finish. That's millions upon millions for existing companies, if everything goes well. And hardly ever goes well, delays and tecjnical issues are common. Again, for proven tech don eby established companies. Something like a commercial ramjet engine developed by a start-up is not even the same solar system: there we talk, realistically, billions and closer to a decade, if it works technically. And then you need a market for that engine, which means demand (doubtfull, but who knows) and more importantly, an aircraft. And the last bit again is aroubd a decade and another couple of billions. Engine and aircraft development can, and has, been done in parallel. It still takes longer so, as both development projects depend on each other, the A400M would be a recent example of that approach. If Hermeus doesn't have a development partner for the airframe, realistically, if everything (!) goes well, we talk about at least 15-20 years from now. Not sure if VC funding is the right model for stuff like this.