Merlin Labs Becomes First to Reach Certification Basis Milestone in Autonomous Aviation
Today, Merlin Labs is announcing a major milestone in our quest to become the definitive autonomy system for all things that fly: the certification basis for our takeoff to touchdown autonomy system has been approved by the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand (CAA), in a joint project with the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This important program milestone makes us the first company to reach an agreement on an approach for the certification of aircraft autonomy. Read our Press Release here.
Cynthia Comer, Merlin Labs’ Vice President Certification and Quality, says the three-year-old company has been “working at the development of our technologies for two to three years.” We have worked closely with regulators right from the start. “It’s all about integrating into the existing system, not working to disrupt it,” she says. Our cooperative, “crawl-walk-run” approach “instantly got the attention of the regulators,” and we were able to develop strong working relationships with regulators.
Approving a certification basis, along with the overarching program certification plan, signifies the CAA’s confidence in Merlin’s personnel, approach, timeline, management of program risk, and ability to deliver on certification outcomes. It is a critical milestone on the path to bringing autonomously piloted aircraft to the skies. It’s essential to engage with regulators early and often to make them aware of how we’re developing our system and tackling various challenges. Especially with new and novel technology, making this a collaborative process will ultimately optimize aviation safety.
For Merlin Labs, the path to certification of its modifications of fixed-wing aircraft for autonomously piloted operation will be identical to the certification path for any other significant modification of an existing aircraft, according to Comer.
“We still have a lot of work ahead, but today’s certification basis announcement represents a critical step. Today’s news is the culmination of years of hard work by our certification, engineering, design, R&D and flight test teams. Our certification basis allows us to accelerate our path to market to deliver takeoff to touchdown autonomy for our partners and customers.” said Matthew George, Merlin Co-Founder and CEO.
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Merlin is hiring across our engineering, certification, and business teams. To learn more about our open roles, please visit careers.merlinlabs.com.
