FutureFlight
NASA Contracts Xwing To Study Safety of Autonomous Flight Operations
Autonomous flight pioneer Xwing is working with NASA to develop a safety management system for increasingly autonomous flight operations. 
Xwing's modified Cessna 208B Grand Caravan is pictured in flight.
Autonomous flight pioneer Xwing is teaming with NASA to develop a safety management system for autonomous flight operations. The company is working on a supplemental type certificate that would allow it to use a fleet of modified Cessna 208B Grand Caravans for pilotless cargo flights. (Photo: Xwing)

Autonomous flight pioneer Xwing is working with NASA to develop a safety management system for increasingly autonomous flight operations, the company announced today. 

Under the newly signed Space Act Agreement led by ​​NASA’s System-Wide Safety (SWS) Project, Xwing will share its data, algorithms, and autonomous flight expertise with the agency. NASA will use this to help validate and evaluate safety management systems for future autonomous flight operations. In return, the agency will share with Xwing “information and tools for the evaluation of algorithms and operational data, safety analysis and assessment, safety management systems, and risk analysis and prognostics,” the company said in a statement.

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