Merlin, a developer of safe, autonomous flight technology for fixed-wing aircraft, has successfully begun the flight test campaign of its certification-ready Cessna Caravan aircraft equipped with the Merlin Pilot. This campaign is a first for the industry and evidence of Merlin's ability to create certified advanced automation for an aircraft platform which, once proven, is extensible across additional aircraft types and classes, including the Merlin Pilot's integration on the C-130J and the KC-135 in partnership with the United States Air Force.

“Merlin emerged from a broad field of experimental demonstrators and is now uniquely turning in a ‘final draft’ with the flight test campaign of the industry’s first certification-ready Cessna Caravan. What we’ve installed on this aircraft is not a prototype as this is no longer R&D. This is the actual certification configuration including design data, hundreds of drawings and substantiation reports, custom racks and structures, compliant wiring and more,” says CEO and founder Matt George. “With this aircraft we are validating take off to touchdown advanced automation, which for pilots represents a system that is truly ‘set it and forget it’. At the end of the campaign with this certification configuration we will ultimately return this aircraft to service in the supplemental type certificate configuration. This is part of our steady push towards our certification and commercialisation goals.”

The aircraft was converted to boast a glass cockpit with advanced avionics, new sensors, autopilot and an automated communication system. Notably, the advanced automation systems feature dual redundancy akin to those found in the Part 25 air transport category aircraft, ensuring enhanced reliability and safety standards. The aircraft initially underwent integration check flights in June 2024, functional check flights and is now working through open, inner and closed looping testing flights, which will culminate in Q3 2024 with validation of Merlin's automatic flight control system.

This milestone flight test campaign underscores Merlin's commitment to pioneering advancements in aviation safety and efficiency, and marks a significant leap forward in introducing automated take off and landing capabilities on a Part 23 aircraft. The testing and validation process during the campaign will ensure that all aircraft equipment functions seamlessly and as intended with the system integrated, laying a crucial foundation for further testing and refinement of the Merlin Pilot.

“At Merlin, we take progressive, pragmatic steps as has been evidenced before with our recent approach to our certification system bench. The same can be said for this flight test campaign. We stripped everything out of this Cessna Caravan and replaced the instrument panel and legacy systems with modern avionics, the latest display systems, and custom hardware and software for the Merlin Pilot. This includes an air data computer, inertial navigation system, heading system, radar altimeter, all of which were integrated at an incredibly high level of quality in order to meet certification standards,” says chief engineer Sherif Ali. “With these systems on board, the Merlin Pilot is able to understand where the aircraft is, where it’s going and more. This information goes into our flight control computers and is processed such that the Merlin Pilot can ultimately fly the aircraft where it needs to go, when it needs to go there. It's inspiring to be part of a company that truly believes in doing things right to materially advance our certification process one flight hour at a time.”