Hanneke Weitering is a writer and editor with AIN covering advanced air mobility and new flight technologies. She became an aviation journalist and joined the AIN team in the summer of 2022 after reporting on spaceflight and astronomy for six years at Space.com. After earning a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, she moved to New York City to pursue a master’s degree in science, health, and environmental reporting at New York University&#039;s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. After spending several years in the Pacific Northwest, she has returned to the Knoxville area.

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Hanneke Weitering

Merlin Pilot, the autonomous flight system that Boston-based Merlin has been testing on U.S. military aircraft, is expanding into the commercial cargo sector with the launch of “Merlin Pilot for Commercial Cargo.”&nbsp;The new offering is part of a product family Merlin calls Condor, which the company introduced on May 14—the same day Merlin released its first quarterly financial report as a public company, following the close of its <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2026-03-17/merlin-ipo-raises-200-million-autonomous-flight-goals">business combination with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. IV</a> on March 16.
Condor is designed to scale the Merlin Pilot to large, multi-crew aircraft across civil and military platforms. Rather than replacing flight crews, Merlin Pilot is built to work alongside them—managing aircraft systems, monitoring the environment, and handling communications—so crew members can focus on higher-order decision-making.
Starting with the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, which Merlin used as a testbed for early development and flight-testing of its autonomous flight control systems, the company intends to commercialize the technology as a retrofit for various aircraft under supplemental type certificates. Through the Condor program, Merlin is making the Merlin Pilot available for larger military aircraft as well as Part 25 transport-category aircraft like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320.&nbsp;
Freighter lessor World Star Aviation is already collaborating with Merlin on the commercial cargo effort, and the company is pursuing additional partnerships in the cargo conversion market.
“The pilot shortage is structurally impacting operators and comes at a time when the conversion market is at record volume,” said Merlin founder and CEO Matt George. “Condor represents our approach to scaling autonomy across large, multi-crew aircraft, with the Merlin Pilot at its core. It’s being built to certify, advancing on real military aircraft with real regulators, and is designed to integrate into the aircraft operators already own.”
Two weeks before the announcement, Merlin disclosed an $80 million private investment in public equity, bringing its total cash position to roughly $183 million. The company said it would use proceeds to fund platform development, regulatory approval activities, and contract execution.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Defense is working with Merlin to test and integrate the Merlin Pilot autonomy system into the <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/news-article/2022-07-14/merlin-labs-raises-105-million-partners-us-air-force-autonomous-flights">Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules</a> and the <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2024-11-12/usaf-approves-merlins-airworthiness-plan-autonomous-kc-135">Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker</a>. The C-130J program is advancing through military airworthiness testing under a U.S. Special Operations Command contract, for which Merlin completed a preliminary design review in March.
In addition to test campaigns with the U.S. military, Merlin has already conducted extensive flight tests with its Merlin Pilot-equipped Caravan in California and <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/news-article/2023-04-12/merlin-wins-1-million-faa-contract-autonomous-flight-trials-alaska">Alaska</a>. Merlin has also been conducting commercial cargo flights in New Zealand since early 2024, when the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) awarded it a Part 135 air operator certificate. Operating out of a test facility at Kerikeri in the Far North, the company has been flying cargo for Freightways New Zealand while collecting data to inform Merlin Pilot development. The CAA also awarded Merlin a <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2025-04-04/merlin-wins-part-145-approval-new-zealand">Part 145 maintenance certificate</a> in April 2025, authorizing it to conduct aircraft maintenance for Part 121 and Part 135 operators in the country.
Merlin is not alone in pursuing autonomous cargo operations. California-based <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/company/reliable-robotics">Reliable Robotics</a>, which raised $160 million in April and plans to begin commercial cargo operations this year, is also developing a retrofit autonomy system for the Cessna Caravan—though its focus remains on smaller regional aircraft rather than large multi-crew transports. The autonomy division of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2024-06-04/joby-aviation-acquires-autonomous-flight-pioneer-xwing">Xwing</a>, another Caravan-focused autonomy start-up, was acquired by Joby Aviation. Merlin has not revealed its targeted timeline for the Merlin Pilot’s first STC and entry into commercial service.

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