Testing Starts for Autonomous Military Aircraft

Merlin starts KC-135 test flight campaign to progress autonomous capabilities for the United States Air Force

Real-time flight data is critical to progressing the design, integration and eventual flight demonstrations of the autonomous “Merlin Pilot” system in addition to establishing the groundwork for next generation air-refuelling systems.

Merlin, a developer of autonomous flight technology for fixed-wing aircraft is working with aerospace and defence specialist SNC, to conduct the first three test flights in Merlin’s ongoing KC-135 Stratotanker test program at the Pittsburgh Air National Guard Base.

Earlier in July, Merlin and SNC were granted a temporary military flight release by the United States Air Force (USAF) and the team conducted real-time data collection and analysis to understand the “Merlin Pilot’s” integration design and flight control tuning for military aircraft.

The flights support an ongoing agreement with Air Mobility Command (AMC) and Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) to design, integrate, test and demonstrate aspects of the Merlin Pilot on the KC-135. Merlin engineers also joined USAF pilots on data collection flights at MacDill Air Force Base in May 2024.

The flights helped the team better understand crew workload drivers for military use cases. Together, these milestones signify Merlin’s progressive system design and integration work to achieve its goal of an in-flight demonstration of the Merlin Pilot in the next year, as well as support broader product alignment to help establish the planned Next Generation Air-Refuelling System (NGAS).

“Autonomous capabilities are essential to increasing operational capacity for the USAF and enhancing national security, emphasising the importance of these data collection flights to properly understand the integration design ahead of flight demonstrations,” said Matt George, CEO and founder, Merlin. “Over the last few months, we’ve achieved important milestones on the KC-135 that allow us to strengthen the relationship between the pilot and the aircraft as well as enhance safety and operational efficiency aboard a vital military aircraft. These are fundamental and critical steps that get us closer to advancing and scaling autonomous capabilities across the USAF’s fleet.”

• Author
• Recent Posts

Jonathan Newell

Jonathan Newell is a graduate of Loughborough University and has three decades of experience in engineering as well as broadcast and technical journalism.

Latest posts by Jonathan Newell (see all)

• UK manufacturing steps up to COVID-19 crisis - April 2, 2020
• Clustering Innovation - March 12, 2020
• A Global Monitor - March 6, 2020