GE Aerospace has agreed to support Merlin’s efforts to certify its autonomous flight technology for use with existing civil and military aircraft. Under an agreement announced on September 23, the companies said their collaboration will focus on artificial intelligence and “autonomy-focused solutions that enable crew reduction efforts.”
The partnership presents the prospect of Merlin’s autopilot technology eventually being integrated with GE’s flight management systems, which are installed on more than 14,000 legacy military aircraft worldwide. Boston-based Merlin has been working under Pentagon contracts to demonstrate the potential for the technology to be deployed on U.S. Air Force aircraft such as the KC-135 Stratotankers, through the Center Console Refresh program, and also the C-130J Super Hercules.
According to the companies, they will now pursue ways to combine Merlin’s autonomy software suite, avionics packages and datalink technology with GE’s flight management systems and open architecture integration expertise. They aim to support transition to single-pilot operations for multiple current two-crew aircraft.
“GE Aerospace’s legacy of providing systems of record to commercial and government customers enables us to rapidly bring complementary capabilities to market,” said Merlin’s CEO, Matt George. “By teaming with GE Aerospace, we are able to pair their open system architecture with Merlin’s autonomy capabilities to create and deliver the next generation of avionics systems, extending our work with existing customers, expanding the volume and types of platforms we support and accelerating our revenue growth.”