In 2016, Y Combinator funded three aerospace companies, including Astranis, which have since become billion-dollar companies, showing that it's possible to succeed without a billionaire founder.

Boom, a company funded by Y Combinator, is developing a supersonic passenger jet and made significant progress during their batch by securing a $100 million LOI from Richard Branson.

Eight years after their Y Combinator batch, Boom successfully built and flew a supersonic jet, demonstrating the potential of hard tech startups.

Boom, a YC company, demonstrated that by assembling a team of top advisors and creating computer simulations, they could attract interest from airlines without incurring significant costs.

Sweden aims to fully electrify all flights by 2040, reflecting a progressive regulatory environment that supports sustainable aviation initiatives. They built a 19-seater electric plane and have a test pilot ready, showcasing significant progress in just four years.

Earhart is building airplanes that anyone can fly, and Garage is a wholesale auto parts distributor in Africa.

Astrome Mechanica has developed an electric jet engine that is efficient at all speeds, allowing for versatile applications in aviation.

Astranis, a Y Combinator startup, revolutionized satellite technology by building smaller, cheaper satellites instead of a few large ones, similar to how commodity servers replaced mainframes.

Astrome Mechanica plans to focus on launching payloads into orbit as a specific use case for their versatile engine, similar to Tesla's strategy.