Merlin Labs has agreed to a partnership to convert up to 55 Textron King Air twin turboprops operated by Dynamic Aviation for autonomous flight. The Boston-based company has raised $25 million to support its plans to bring its “drop-in autonomy kit” into commercial service.
The first King Air from Dynamic’s fleet is being used for flight testing at a facility in the Mojave Air & Space Port in California. Merlin intends to convert multiple aircraft types under FAA supplemental type certificates for use in a variety of public- and private-sector applications.
The Merlin Flight Control system consists of a combination of computers, servos, actuators, and sensors that the company claims can be installed in a wide array of existing aircraft. The conversion process begins with the company performing a series of survey flights in which a test pilot conducts maneuvers from which Merlin’s engineering team receives data.
Using this data, Merlin builds an autonomous flight control model that is specific to each aircraft type, using hardware-in-the-loop, software-in-the-loop, and aircraft-in-the-loop simulators. Once it has established that the model works in the simulators, the company installs them in a real aircraft and then gradually expands the envelope for autonomous flight, culminating in full takeoff to touchdown autonomy.
The FAA has issued given Merlin its approval to conduct optionally piloted tests that allow the company to control flights from the ground for some operations. All flight testing is conducted with a monitoring pilot on board.
The company explained to FutureFlight that its operating model will always involve a human pilot supervising deployed aircraft. It maintains that greater efficiency will result from autonomous operations when aviation regulators give clearance for each monitoring pilot to supervise multiple aircraft. Air traffic controllers will communicate directly with the flight control system using natural language processing.
“Our approach is to build high levels of redundant onboard autonomy to ensure that even if the link to a remote pilot is lost, that aircraft can still safely operate,” a company spokesman said in a written statement. “This differs from a remotely piloted approach where the human operator is in charge of performing many critical functions, such as talking to air traffic controllers and manipulating control surfaces, instead of simply monitoring the autonomy.”
The partnership announced this week calls for Dynamic to operate the aircraft under contract to end-users. The Virginia-based operator uses its King Airs and other aircraft for a variety of services including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, data acquisition flights, and public health and safety support.
Merlin has not announced when it aims to have the STC for the King Air conversion approved. It has also not disclosed an estimated price for the equipment, including installation.
The company was founded in 2018 and has been operating in stealth mode until this week. The $25 million funding round was led by Google Ventures and First Round Capital and also backed by investors including Floodgate, Harpoon, WTI, Ben Ling, Box Group, Shrug Capital, and Howard Morgan.
