DARPA veteran Paul Eremenko on AI engineers designing aircraft and space systems

Paul Eremenko is a Ukrainian-born aerospace engineer and technology leader whose career spans defense research, Silicon Valley innovation, and aerospace industry leadership. Having moved from the Soviet Union to the US at age 11, he developed a lifelong passion for aviation and space, starting flight training at 14. Eremenko studied aerospace engineering and later law, driven by interests in national security and government contracts. His work at DARPA focused on transforming aerospace design and manufacturing by applying microchip-style multiphysics simulations and programmable factories to accelerate building complex defense systems, aiming to reduce development times by factors of 10 to 100. Eremenko co-founded P-1 AI to explore whether artificial intelligence can automate core engineering tasks, potentially revolutionizing how aircraft and space systems are designed. He also co-launched the 100 Year Starship project with NASA Ames to investigate how humanity might organize a century-long effort to build an interstellar spacecraft, drawing lessons from historical rapid innovation projects like the Manhattan Project and Apollo