Merlin, Inc., a U.S. aerospace and defense technology company building the operating system of record for autonomous flight, today announced plans to pursue a civil certification strategy that sets it on a path to bring autonomy to large aircraft. Merlin intends to implement a phased, methodical approach offering opportunities for safety and efficiency gains. To concentrate its efforts on large aircraft, the company is withdrawing its small aircraft Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) application with the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand (CAANZ), and will apply the technical foundation and regulatory experience it built there to the new programme. New Zealand will remain Merlin's Pacific flight test centre and demonstration home, and the company intends to begin commercial operations there.

There are over 7,000 large commercial aircraft in service in the U.S. alone, and much of that fleet lacks modern computing capabilities and faces lengthy upgrade timelines. Because these aircraft fly long routes at high utilisation, the operational benefits compound across thousands of flight hours a year. U.S. operators spend approximately $24 billion annually on the crews who fly them, and the industry faces a structural pilot shortage: Oliver Wyman estimates the North American and global shortages to approach 30,000 and 80,000 pilots by 2032, respectively. Longer term, Boeing projects a need for approximately 674,000 new pilots over the next two decades. The demand for autonomy to make large aircraft operations safer and more efficient is structural and urgent.

"Operators are already facing real challenges around crew availability, mission complexity, and operating efficiency, creating a growing demand for technology modernisation on large aircraft," said Matt George, CEO and founder, Merlin. "Our work in New Zealand allowed us to move quickly, mature the Merlin Pilot and make meaningful progress on certifying autonomy with a civil regulator. We are now applying that experience and technical foundation to large aircraft, which we believe is the most effective way to bring our technology and American ingenuity to the global market while meeting operators where the commercial need is greatest. We are incredibly grateful to the CAANZ team for their partnership and look forward to continuing that relationship as we enter this next phase."

Merlin is already working on integrating the Merlin Pilot onto large, high-assurance aircraft. The company has completed preliminary and critical design review under its C-130J autonomy programme with U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). The same core Merlin Pilot platform underpins Merlin's defence and civil programmes, so investment in one programme compounds across the others.

Merlin began its certification programme with the CAANZ, in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under a Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement, early in its development. The programme was designed to mature Merlin's technology, verification processes, testing, and certification approach while working closely with a civil aviation regulator. That programme produced meaningful results including achieving its Stage of Involvement (SOI) 3 milestone and a Stage 4 issue paper addressing the use of AI/ML-based natural language processing. These achievements generated valuable regulatory insights that will inform Merlin's future certification and collaboration efforts with the FAA and other regulators working to safely bring autonomy to commercial markets.