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Posted on 03/13/2026 12:09:39 PM PDT by woodbutcher1963
Ethan Thornton is the Founder and CEO of Mach Industries, a defense technology company developing next-generation unmanned systems and hydrogen-powered weapons platforms to redefine modern warfare and energy logistics. Ethan left MIT after one semester in 2023 to focus on building Mach full-time.
Originally from Texas, Ethan grew up on a farm where he began prototyping weapons in high school. Funded through car tech jobs, knife and furniture sales, and small engineering projects. His early hands-on ingenuity and deep sense of urgency, intensified by the war in Ukraine—motivated him to accelerate U.S. innovation in unmanned aircraft and weapon systems to help deter China and strengthen national defense capabilities. Under his leadership, Mach Industries has attracted backing from top venture firms including Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, and Bedrock, and has secured major U.S. Army contracts while expanding manufacturing operations.
Ethan’s work reflects a broader vision beyond defense. He frequently speaks on the strategic significance of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, the U.S. dollar’s reserve status, the challenge of social decay and neo-feudalism, and the need for productive, post-partisan solutions that secure America’s technological and economic future.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
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This kid(22)is so smart, he started building weapons when he was 16. Dropped out of MIT to start Mac Industries. Now, he has $100 million contracts with the US military making drones.
It made me proud that there are still young white men that are not obsessed with social media.
I was amazed listening to this 22 year old kid. He is that smart.
Anyone else hear of him ?
I have not heard of him, but the fact he dropped out of MIT, where everyone knows they are elite - and also want recognition for it, to make and sell stuff shows he is singularly focused.
financial success usually comes to focused and driven people.
Photos or it didn't happen.
Was that him who flew by wearing a gold and red armored suit?
God bless America.
Yep, that was him, with “Shoot to Thrill” blaring over the loudspeakers.
I think he is well beyond building weapons that are fired by gun powder.
https://machindustries.com/articles
"With no engineering background, Ronnie Barrett hand-sketched plans at home for a .50BMG repeating semi-automatic rifle. Later, he found a partner in tool and die maker Bob Mitchell and an employee at a sheet metal fabricator in Smyrna, Tennessee. Four months later a prototype was finished.
A second prototype shown off at a gun show in Houston would garner starting capital for Barrett from three investors, necessary for the Barrett Firearms Manufacturing company and production of the first 30 rifles for private use. Large-scale commercial success came when the CIA acquired an unknown number of rifles for arming the Afghan mujahideen as part of the Soviet–Afghan War effort."
When I was in 5th grade, our class went on a field trip that included a stop at the Pennsylvania State Police Training Headquarters. They had a museum there of homemade weapons that they had confiscated over the years.
They never should have shown these things to an active 11 year old mind with unlimited curiosity.
The one that really caught my attention was a 12 gauge Rat Trap Shotgun
It was a 1x6 about 10 inches long, mounted vertically to a piece of 2x6 that lay flat on the on the floor. There was a piece of 4 inch piece of 3/4 inch black steel pipe drilled into the vertical 1x6, a piece of homasote board covering the backside of the 1x6 with a roofing nail through the board to act as a firing pin, lined up to hit the primer of a 12 gauge shell placed in the pipe.
A rat trap was mounted on the homasote board so that when it went off, the clamp hit square on the roofing nail, driving it forward, causing the shotgun shell in the pipe to go off.
A piece of monofilament fishing line connected to the trigger on the rat trap to cause it to go off.
What an educational field trip for a 5th grader.
RE: a 22 year old built a 50....
Could the average 50 year old build a .22?
I wonder if older people who saw the Dustin Hoffman Straw Dogs or younger ones who saw the remake, were inspired to build man-traps.
We can use them now in schools, churches and especially synagogues. Would be “moderate” because the perps are held for their due process and days in court before a leftist judge lets them go.
I need that grocery list, for uh, science....
I was on a cross country road trip the last four days. I listened to this podcast.
I thought the kid was impressive. His theories on how war fighting is going to change over the coming years was an interesting listen.
My one gripe is when he veered off his area of expertise he spoke with “authority”, but his understanding of some things was thin. That happens with a lot of these young geniuses. Wisdom that comes with experience will round off those edges.
It was worth a couple of hours of my time on I90.
And why does it matter that he’s white? Wouldn’t it be just as good if he was a black kid?
“Photos or it didn’t happen.”
indeed ...
Cause most white kids are sitting in the basement playing video games, NOT making world class engineering success’s out of a Home Depot shopping list.
Triggered much?
That’s ridiculous. You have no idea what MOST white kids are doing
Not Home Depot parts. They don’t stock 4140 steel. Anything will burst under the pressure of a .50 cal cartridge.
The conversation about the .50 is about 1:27 in. It wasn’t a Barrett knock-off, more of a homemade musket using a more sophisticated propellant than black powder.
He used deer feeder batteries to electrolyze hydrogen and oxygen from water (carried in a backpack), then piped the oxy-hydrogen gas (as propellant) into a “barrel.”
He says he made the “barrel” from random pipes, and he repeatedly refers to it as a “rifle” but never address how he put rifling in a generic pipe he bought from Home Depot or Amazon. Then he’d ignite the propellant gas with a spark and launch 1/2” ball bearings from it. No mention of rifling and use of a ball bearings as projectiles gives me to believe it was a smoothbore.
But he never test-fired it because Mom put the kibosh on the idea of exploding hydrogen gas that close to his face (exactly my argument against bullpup rifles).
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