Merlin achieves Stage of Involvement (SOI) 2 milestone with Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand, advancing path to certification

Merlin, a leading developer of assured, autonomous flight technology for defense customers, today announced it has successfully achieved its second Stage of Involvement (SOI 2) milestone with the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand (CAA NZ). SOI 2 represents a critical phase in the DO-178 certification audit cycle, which is designed to provide regulators with progressive visibility into software development programs. The CAA’s four step certification process ensures safety-critical software achieves in-air operability, ensuring regulator confidence in the system’s design, execution, and final product. Merlin’s achievement of SOI 2 is a major advancement in this multi-stage journey toward certification, and follows the company’s recently announced plans to go public.

This accomplishment builds on Merlin’s previously announced SOI 1 milestone in May 2023, further advancing its Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) program on its Cessna Grand Caravan 208B, which is on a concurrent validation pathway with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under the Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement. While SOI 1 focused on regulator acceptance of Merlin’s planning documentation, SOI 2 marks the point at which approximately 50 percent of the software data for the Flight Control Computer (FCC) has been formally reviewed. Reaching this stage provides CAA NZ with meaningful insight into how Merlin has been executing against the approved plans established during SOI 1, and demonstrates the company’s commitment to building regulator confidence through transparency and adherence to international safety standards.

“SOI 2 reflects the disciplined engineering and certification practices our team has put in place,” said Tim Burns, Chief Technology Officer at Merlin. “Each stage of this process deepens regulator confidence, reduces program risk, and advances the Merlin Pilot toward certification and real-world operations. This milestone also highlights the close collaboration between our engineering teams and the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand, whose partnership has been instrumental in shaping a robust and credible path to approval.”