FutureFlight
U.S. Air Force Contracts Xwing To Study Defense Applications for Self-flying Aircraft
Autonomous flight pioneer Xwing will work with the U.S. Air Force to study the use of autonomous flight technology for defense applications.
Xwing's experimental Cessna 208B Grand Caravan is pictured on9 the runway at sunset
Under its new contract with the U.S. Air Force's Afwerx program, Xwing will spend 21 months conducting flight trials with its experimental Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, which is equipped with the company's "Superpilot" autonomous flight technology. (Photo: Xwing)

As part of its effort to accelerate innovation in the aerospace industry, the U.S. Air Force will work with autonomous flight pioneer Xwing to help introduce self-flying airplanes into its defense fleet. The California-based tech start-up announced on Thursday that it has received a Direct to Phase 2 small business innovation research (SBIR) contract from the USAF’s Afwerx Prime program to study potential defense applications for remotely piloted aircraft.

Xwing is working to certify its “Superpilot” autonomous flight control system, which will enable remotely piloted flight operations using legacy aircraft converted under supplemental type certificates. So far, the company has installed and tested its Superpilot only on a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, but just about any aircraft could be retrofitted with the Superpilot, which is designed to be vehicle-agnostic. 

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