The future of flight is arriving in the American Southwest, as an autonomous flight control system company is officially planting its flag on US soil–with Phoenix, AZ, chosen as their stateside location.

Daedalean, with offices in Switzerland and Latvia, now opens the US office to serve the region of both Americas. The company is naming industry tech and sales veteran Dr. Yemaya Bordain as President of its Americas business, trusting her to lead innovation and partnership efforts at the

new office. The business development titan joins Daedalean after more than seven years as

Global Sales Director at Intel Corporation.

“We have an opportunity to transform the aviation and transportation industries. Daedalean is leading the charge in creating a world where we'll be keeping up with the Jetsons as we skip over traffic jams in autonomous and situationally-aware aircraft. I am so thrilled to be joining their pioneering team. It is an exciting challenge to play a key role in achieving this future," says Yemaya Bordain.

Dr. Bordain joins Daedalean as a recognized business leader in the embedded aerospace and defense industry and an expert in the safety certification of multi-core avionics systems. She architected and grew the global adoption of Intel’s product offerings addressing safety in the aerospace industry. She managed industry-leading advances in partnership with top global OEMs, including Lockheed-Martin Corporation, Collins Aerospace, Indra Sistemas, and Mercury Systems. Bordain will lead the new office and foster a robust US presence that will serve as a springboard for partnerships, business opportunities, and furthering relationships with

American corporations, business leaders, and regulators.

“Yemaya Bordain brings her strong technical and domain expertise in a winning combination with the aerospace industry-wide relationships and deep knowledge of the ecosystem. Landing this accomplished and talented executive to lead the Phoenix office shows the priority, dedication, and commitment to Daedalean’s strategic development in the US,” says Daedalean CEO and founder Dr. Luuk van Dijk.

Since launching in 2016, Daedalean has been at the forefront of developing AI software for autonomous flight control for civil aircraft and urban air mobility. The superior perception and advanced flight control software in the air brings more safety to the space that was long

dependent on a humans-only cockpit.

“To have AI systems reliably fly aircraft is a new frontier for aviation and transportation. It will fundamentally change the value chain, commoditizing airframes and avionics, and moving the value creation to the new opportunities opened by simplified flight operations,” says Van Dijk. “At the same time, being able to meet safety certification requirements is a whole new frontier for AI. To get us all into the world of safe and economically viable air transport, we are rising to the

challenge to prove that AI and machine learning technologies are fit for purpose and can live up

to the most stringent requirements for safety.”

Alongside American partners, the company has already added an exciting jolt to the US aerospace sector, creating a direct market path to bring the first-ever machine learning-based avionics systems.

“Currently, we are working hard with a partner, Avidyne, on receiving certification for our first product. And as far as we know, this will be the world’s first certified system for civil aviation with a non-trivial safety case that has a machine-learned component for AI assistance to a human pilot. It’s more than yet another instrument: it can see and interpret the visual scene beyond human vision and capability,” says co-founder Anna Chernova.

Since its inception, Daedalean’s team has also worked with aviation regulators, developing relationships on both sides of the Atlantic and publishing joint reports with EASA and the FAA.

“Certification of machine learning systems for safety-critical aviation applications will be the ultimate game-changer for aerospace innovation and safety,” says Chernova.

To drive their ambitious work, Daedalean boasts a team of more than 90 people with expertise in machine learning and computer vision, aviation-grade software engineering, flight testing, safety assessment, and certification. The publicly disclosed total amount of financing for the company up to date is $72 million.