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 ultimately return this aircraft to service in the Supplemental Type Certificate configuration. This is part of our steady push towards our certification and commercialization goals." Design improvements made to the Merlin Pilot platform Specifically, Merlin's Cessna Caravan is now equipped with all modifications that fulfill its intended STC, specifically including the Merlin Pilot platform.
This has upgraded the Cessna Caravan to a glass cockpit with an advanced avionics system. This sytem includes the latest display systems, an air data computer, an inertial navigation system, a new heading system, and a radar altimeter, each of which were installed to meet standard FAA certification standards. The Chief Engineer at Merlin, Sherif Ali, also spoke about the next steps for the program.
Ali stated, "With these systems onboard, the Merlin Pilot is able to understand where the aircraft is, where it’s going, and more. This information goes into our flight control computers and is processed such that the Merlin Pilot can ultimately fly the aircraft where it needs to go, when it needs to go there. It’s inspiring to be part of a company that truly believes in doing things right to materially advance our certification process one flight hour at a time.
" Overall, many of the systems on the Merlin Pilot platform include dual redundancy safety features. This aligns with many of the requirements that are found in the FAA Part 25 Air Transport Category. This is notable, as the Cessna Caravan is a Part 23 type certified aircraft, which is considered the Normal Category for aircraft.
This testing and validation process that is typically found during the flight test program will ensure that each of the aircraft's modified systems performs as intended. Overall, the combination of these advanced systems in the STC will allow the aircraft to fly by itself, once certified..
