Merlin
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At Merlin, we’re excited to share significant progress in the flight test campaign of our certification-ready Cessna Caravan. From our test center at Quonset State Airport in Rhode Island, we’ve been rigorously validating key components of our Merlin Pilot system that are crucial for our supplemental type certificate (STC) program.
From R&D to Real-World Validation
Our journey toward certified autonomous flight technology reached an important inflection point in June 2024 when we conducted our first platform integration and systems-on test flight. With the Merlin Pilot system aboard and under the supervision of a human safety pilot, this marked our transition from research and development to STC validation and certification.
In the months since, we’ve continued to make steady progress validating core functionalities of our autonomy platform. Two capabilities in particular represent major technical milestones:
Flight Guidance System
Our Flight Guidance capability integrates seamlessly with aircraft systems to manage trajectory and speed across all phases of flight. This system provides precise lateral and vertical guidance while significantly reducing pilot workload—a key step toward our vision of enhanced flight safety and efficiency.
Autothrottle System
The Autothrottle functionality automatically adjusts engine thrust to maintain target airspeeds throughout the flight envelope. Working in concert with our Flight Guidance capability, this system ensures smooth, efficient, and consistent speed control—another critical building block in our autonomous flight technology stack.
“Kicking off our flight test campaign last year marked our transition from R&D to STC validation and certification. As we continue testing and integrating additional core functionalities of our high-assurance autonomy platform, we’re proving our ability to build and deliver a highly assured system capable of operating in real-world operations—including complex military missions,” says our CEO and founder. “These milestones are an exciting step forward in fulfilling our mission to deliver safe, autonomous flight—beginning with our first phase of safety-critical crew support.”
Building Momentum Across Commercial and Military Applications
These flight tests not only advance our commercial certification efforts but also validate our ability to meet the autonomy requirements for military platforms like the C-130J and KC-135—key aircraft in our ongoing partnerships with defense organizations.
Recent regulatory achievements have further accelerated our progress:
- The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved our custom Remote Data Concentrator (RDC)
- The United States Air Force (USAF) has accepted our airworthiness plan for KC-135 testing
What’s Next?
These successful validations of Flight Guidance and Autothrottle set the stage for more complex and intelligent flight autonomy capabilities. As we continue our flight test campaign, we’ll be demonstrating increasingly sophisticated aspects of the Merlin Pilot system, always with our unwavering commitment to safety and reliability.