Andrew Duggleby

Dr. Andrew Duggleby is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Venus Aerospace, a Houston-based startup with reusable hypersonic flight technologies to enable one-hour global travel—allowing passengers to fly from anywhere on Earth and return home for dinner—through innovations like the VDR2 rotating detonation ramjet engine, which has achieved U.S. flight tests, supersonic demonstrations, and partnerships with DARPA and NASA for high-efficiency propulsion at Mach 6+. A rocket scientist with a PhD in mechanical engineering, Duggleby previously led launch operations at Virgin Orbit (hotfiring the first dual-mode 3D-printed rocket engine with NASA), contributed to early programs at Virgin Galactic, taught mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University, conducted turbomachinery research at Virginia Tech, and serves as a Lieutenant Commander Engineering Duty Officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve supporting the Defense Innovation Unit's space portfolio. Inspired by long-distance frustrations while stationed in Japan with his wife and CEO Sassie Duggleby—whom he co-founded Venus with in 2020 amid the pandemic—he has scaled the company to over 100 employees, raised tens of millions from investors like Prime Movers Lab and Airbus Ventures, and advances sustainable, runway-takeoff hypersonic platforms for commercial, defense, and space applications to shrink the world.