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Street Ideas Just Put (NYSE American: FJET) On The Watchlist This Morning—Thursday, September 24, 2026
Don’t Miss Our Next Update—Get Real-Time Alerts Sent Directly To Your Phone. Up To 10X Faster Than Email. Take A Close Look At (FJET) While It’s Still Early… September 24, 2026 Dear Reader, As Thursday gets started, Starfighters Space, Inc. (NYSE American: FJET) is still at the top of our watchlist this morning. Two recent MOUs and its unique flight-ready Mach 2+ fleet are putting several fresh developments around (FJET) in focus. The company holds the world's only commercial fleet of flight-ready Mach 2+ supersonic F-104 aircraft. More than 2,500 F-104s were built for air forces worldwide during the Cold War. Today only a handful remain airworthy — and most belong to Starfighters, flying commercial missions out of NASA's Kennedy Space Center and the Midland International Air & Space Port. In September, two MOUs formalized within seven days brought credentialed partners directly into the company's STARLAUNCH™ development pipeline… Vaya Defense & Space — with documented work alongside DARPA, the U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Army DEVCOM — to evaluate a throttleable, restartable hybrid rocket engine for underwing air launch. The Bionetics Corporation — managing NASA payload processing capabilities — to integrate pathfinder small payloads at a Cape Canaveral facility nine miles from the hangar. Propulsion and payload processing are not peripheral concerns for a launch system. They are the core requirements. Both are now under formal development with Space Coast partners. That's why (FJET) sits at the top of our watchlist heading into Thursday, September 24, 2026. 
Here's everything you need to know before this day gets away from you… Evaluating The Propulsion Partnership
On September 9, 2026, Starfighters Space, Inc. (NYSE American: FJET) entered an MOU with Vaya Defense & Space to evaluate Vaya's patented Vortex-Hybrid rocket engine as a potential propulsion solution for the STARLAUNCH airborne launch platform. STARLAUNCH is designed to deploy small payloads to suborbital and eventually orbital destinations from the underwing stations of the company's F-104 jets. The selection of Vaya for this evaluation reflects a specific set of technical requirements… Air-launch propulsion demands an engine that is safe to carry beneath a manned aircraft, capable of controlled ignition at altitude, and able to modulate thrust in flight. Vaya's Vortex-Hybrid engine addresses those requirements directly. It pairs a 3D-printed, non-explosive thermoplastic fuel grain with a liquid oxidizer, delivering full-authority throttling and in-flight restart — capabilities that traditional solid rocket motors cannot offer. CEO Tim Franta characterized the engine as "close to ideal for a vehicle carried under the wing of an aircraft." The characterization is grounded in Vaya's track record. This is a propulsion company based in Cocoa, Florida, with documented engagements alongside the U.S. Army DEVCOM Aviation & Missile Center, the U.S. Air Force, and DARPA — spanning tactical missile and hypersonic ramjet applications… The geographic factor is also notable. Vaya's propulsion lab and precision machining facility are located a short drive from Starfighters' hangar at Kennedy Space Center, positioning both companies to iterate quickly between design, fabrication, and flight testing. 
That proximity matters. Under the MOU, Starfighters will have access to Vaya's precision machining facility for prototyping, engine testing, and flight hardware development — which means the engineering loop between design and test stays tight and fast… The collaboration has two tracks. The first evaluates flying Vaya's hypersonic test articles aboard the Wind Tunnel in the Sky™ service, exposing hardware to sustained Mach 2+ conditions for technology validation. The second assesses whether Vaya's hybrid propulsion is suitable for STARLAUNCH itself, beginning with suborbital missions and covering propulsion performance, vehicle integration, and operating methodologies for the F-104's underwing stations. That's a serious technical scope — and both companies are positioned to move quickly on it. One week before the Vaya announcement, on September 2, the company signed a second MOU with The Bionetics Corporation to integrate and process pathfinder small payloads for upcoming missions. Bionetics manages processing capabilities for NASA research payloads and spaceflight hardware at the Space Life Sciences Lab — a 104,000-square-foot facility at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport with dozens of laboratories supporting NASA and commercial space activities. That facility is just nine miles from Starfighters' hangar. Under this MOU, Bionetics will work with Starfighters to prepare multiple classes of small payloads — including pre-flight and post-flight assembly, testing, integration, and data retrieval. Two partnerships. Seven days. Propulsion and payload processing — the two things an air-launch system needs most — now both actively moving forward… The Operational Asset Base
Starfighters Space, Inc. (NYSE American: FJET) operates its F-104 fleet commercially from two locations — NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Midland International Air & Space Port in Texas. That fleet supports two distinct service lines, each addressing a documented and growing area of demand… The first is Wind Tunnel in the Sky™ — a reusable airborne testing platform that exposes hardware to sustained Mach 2+ flight conditions in real-world atmospheric environments. The testing parameters are specific and verifiable. According to the company's July 2026 announcement, a standard 45-minute mission can include up to a 10-minute Mach 2+ test window — substantially longer than ground-based wind tunnel runs at comparable speeds, which typically last only seconds. The platform uses a modular, reusable underwing system designed to host sensors, test articles, and payloads for long-duration exposure to high-speed and low-gravity conditions. The range of supported hardware includes aerodynamic test articles, avionics, communications systems, electronic equipment, and advanced materials for hypersonic programs and microgravity research. CEO Tim Franta has noted that airborne testing exposes hardware to combinations of weather variation, vibration, acceleration, dynamic conditions, and temperature that fixed facilities cannot always fully reproduce… For defense contractors, aerospace engineers, and university research teams, sustained real-atmosphere exposure at Mach 2+ speeds represents a testing environment that is, at present, nearly impossible to access through any other commercial provider. The second service line is STARLAUNCH — the airborne launch system now advancing through the Vaya and Bionetics MOUs. The operational advantages of air launch are well documented in the literature. It eliminates the requirement for a dedicated ground launch pad. It enables launches from a standard runway — in Florida, in Texas, or potentially from allied locations abroad. It provides weather and airspace flexibility that fixed-site operations do not offer. And it could support a launch cadence that ground-based systems struggle to match… The addressable markets behind both services are supported by third-party research. The global hypersonic technology sector was valued at roughly $7.2B in 2025 and is projected to reach approximately $19.8B by 2034 at a compound annual growth rate of 11.9%, per Dataintelo. The U.S. Department of Defense allocated nearly $3.8B for hypersonic systems development in its fiscal year 2025 budget — a figure that reflects the scale of institutional demand for the category of testing infrastructure Starfighters already provides. The small satellite market is projected to grow from $9.35B in 2025 to $32.13B by 2030, at a CAGR of 28.0%, per MarketsandMarkets. And the broader space launch services market is forecast to expand from $25.3B in 2026 to $41.3B by 2030 at a CAGR of 15.6%, according to Grand View Research. (FJET) does not need to capture a large portion of those figures to reach a meaningful inflection point. It needs to reach operational status — and the September MOUs represent concrete steps toward that threshold. The 2026 Development Timeline
The September partnerships represent the most recent entries in a development sequence that has been building throughout 2026. Reviewing that sequence in its entirety provides useful context for evaluating where (FJET) stands today… The regulatory environment shifted in July, when the FAA proposed a modernized framework for civil supersonic flight over land. The proposal would replace a longstanding blanket prohibition with performance-based standards calibrated to measurable sonic overpressure. For Starfighters, this is not a theoretical benefit. The company currently conducts supersonic operations under existing authorizations. A revised framework could expand where those operations are permitted — most notably opening inland corridors, including potential high-speed testing and air-launch corridors over sparsely populated areas surrounding the Midland Air & Space Port in West Texas. The commercial implications of that expansion — additional customers, broader geographic reach, new testing and launch profiles — are worth monitoring as the rulemaking process advances… In August, the company registered its support for the Space Ready 2.0 Act, bipartisan legislation that would create a mechanism for voluntary private contributions to infrastructure modernization at NASA centers. 
Kennedy Space Center, where Starfighters is based, has transitioned into a multi-tenant spaceport. The condition of shared roads, utilities, pipelines, and facilities has direct bearing on operational readiness for every tenant — and a legislative framework enabling private contributions could benefit companies like Starfighters whose missions depend on that shared infrastructure. The financial timeline is also relevant. In May, Starfighters Space, Inc. (NYSE American: FJET) closed a $17.5M strategic equity raise through Cantor as exclusive placement agent, with participation from global institutional allocators. The stated use of proceeds: operational expansion, infrastructure development, and STARLAUNCH platform advancement. In June, the company was added to the Russell 3000® Index, broadening its visibility among the institutional allocators and passive strategies that benchmark to the Russell index family… The company currently employs 31 full-time staff and operates from two established aerospace facilities. At its Midland site, the company recently participated in the September AIRSHO event, with F-104 flight and static displays piloted by Piercarlo Ciacchi — the company's Director of Flight Operations, a former Italian Air Force F-104 pilot and National Aerobatic Team member with over 7,000 hours of flight time. Dual-coast operations spanning Kennedy Space Center and Midland provide a level of geographic reach that is uncommon at this stage and could prove consequential as both the testing and launch service lines scale. 10 Reasons Why We’re Taking A Closer Look At (FJET)
This Morning—Thursday, September 24, 2026… 1. Unique Fleet: The world’s only commercial fleet of flight-ready Mach 2+ F-104 aircraft gives FJET an operating asset base the source says no competitor currently matches. Pasted text 2. Two MOUs: Two agreements signed within seven days moved both propulsion and payload processing into formal development around FJET and its STARLAUNCH platform. Pasted text 3. Propulsion Partner: A September MOU gives FJET access to Vaya’s hybrid propulsion work, precision machining capabilities, and experience with DARPA, the U.S. Air Force, and Army DEVCOM. Pasted text 4. Payload Processing: A second MOU positions FJET to integrate pathfinder payloads with Bionetics at a 104,000-square-foot Cape Canaveral facility located nine miles from its hangar. Pasted text 5. Mach 2 Testing: A typical Wind Tunnel in the Sky™ mission can provide FJET customers with up to a 10-minute Mach 2+ test window versus seconds for comparable traditional wind-tunnel runs. Pasted text 6. Launch Platform: STARLAUNCH is being developed to let FJET deploy small payloads from aircraft rather than relying solely on fixed ground-launch infrastructure. Pasted text 7. Growing Sectors: The markets surrounding FJET include hypersonic technology projected at roughly $19.8B by 2034 and small satellites projected at $32.13B by 2030. Pasted text 8. FAA Proposal: A proposed FAA framework could expand the geographic areas where FJET conducts commercial supersonic operations if the rules and related corridors move forward. Pasted text 9. Fresh Capital: A $17.5M strategic equity raise in May provided FJET with capital earmarked for operational expansion, infrastructure, and continued STARLAUNCH development. Pasted text 10. Russell Addition: Inclusion in the Russell 3000® Index in June increased FJET visibility among allocators and funds benchmarked to the Russell index family. Take A Close Look At (FJET) While It’s Still Early… 
Two MOUs in seven days. A propulsion partner with DARPA and U.S. military credentials. A payload processing facility nine miles from the hangar. An FAA regulatory shift working in the company's favor. And the only supersonic commercial fleet on the planet — already flying missions, already generating data, already building toward launch… We have all eyes on Starfighters Space, Inc. (NYSE American: FJET) this morning. Take a close look at (FJET) while it’s still early. Sincerely, Paul Prescott
Co-Founder & Managing Editor
Street Ideas Newsletter |
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