On Thursday, September 5, Merlin revealed that its Cessna Caravan aircraft had officially begun its flight test campaign. Merlin, which is a leading developer of autonomous flight technology in the fixed-wing aircraft industry, has equipped this specific Cessna Caravan with its Merlin Pilot platform. This platform, which has already been displayed on several aircraft, powers the aircraft and operates the Cessna Caravan without a pilot, flying the aircraft autonomously.
What are some of the many versions of the popular type? New flight test program Late last week, Merlin kicked off its flight test campaign for Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) validation of its latest autonomous aircraft. This means that its modified Cessna Caravan is no longer considered a research and development (R&D) aircraft, and is instead considered a certification-ready aircraft. Because of this, the aircraft is equipped with supplement type certificate (STC) design data, custom racks, modified structure, and FAA-complliant wiring.
Hundreds of drawings and substantiation reports were prepared to ready this aircraft for certification-ready flights. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Founder of Merlin, Matt George, spoke about the new flight-test program. He stated, "With this aircraft we are validating takeoff to touchdown advanced automation, which for pilots, represents a system that is truly ‘set it and forget it.
’ At the end of the campaign with this certification configuration we will ul.