Starfighters Space, Inc. (FJET) hit the NYSE American last Thursday with all the subtlety of a Mach 2 fighter jet. The company priced its initial public offering at a modest $3.59 per share, but the stock had other ideas about what it was worth.

By Monday's close, shares had exploded 370% higher to $31.50, giving investors a taste of what happens when Wall Street gets excited about the commercial space economy. Then reality set in. On Tuesday morning, the stock gave back 50% of those gains as traders grappled with the age-old question: what exactly should we pay for this thing?

The wild volatility makes sense when you consider what Starfighters actually does. Based at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the company operates something truly unusual: the world's only commercial fleet of Lockheed F-104 Starfighters. These aren't museum pieces. They're the foundation of the company's Starlaunch platform, which uses supersonic jets as a flying first stage for satellite launches.

The business model is clever. By launching satellites from 45,000 feet instead of the ground, Starfighters sidesteps the weather delays and massive infrastructure costs that plague traditional vertical launchpads. In the rapidly growing small-satellite market, that's a real advantage.

But Starfighters isn't just about launching satellites. The company has become a critical research and development partner for some of aviation's biggest names. GE Aerospace (GE) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) are already on the customer list, using the F-104s for high-speed captive carry testing and hypersonic research. As both the U.S. military and private sector rush to develop next-generation propulsion systems, Starfighters' ability to provide sustained supersonic flight could become increasingly valuable.

The company plans to put its $40 million IPO proceeds to work scaling operations. An expansion into Midland, Texas, is in the works, along with the acquisition of F-4 Phantoms to boost payload capacity.

Whether the stock can stabilize after its rollercoaster debut remains to be seen. But Monday's massive rally suggests that at least some investors are betting the company can transform vintage supersonic speed into future orbital dominance.

FJET Price Action: Starfighters Space shares were down 50.79% at $15.50 at the time of publication Tuesday, according to data from Benzinga Pro.