Merlin has achieved the Stage of Involvement 3 (SOI 3) milestone with the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand (CAANZ) for two components of its Merlin Pilot autonomy platform, the Flight Control Computer (FCC) and the Automated Communication System (ACS).

The work has been carried out with CAANZ in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under a Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement. SOI 3 confirms that Merlin's software has been tested and verified against its requirements, building on the SOI 1 and SOI 2 stages already completed. Merlin has also concluded an issue paper addressing the use of AI and machine learning based natural language processing within the certification programme, meaning Merlin and CAANZ have agreed the certification approach and the evidence required to demonstrate that the Merlin Pilot's AI and machine learning based capabilities are safe and perform as intended.

Tim Burns, Chief Technology Officer, Merlin, says: “This milestone underscores Merlin's approach of building trusted autonomy in partnership with regulators. This is significant as we're not building experimental AI, but rather aviation-grade autonomy that performs full phase autonomy from takeoff to touchdown.”

The SOI 3 achievement forms part of Merlin's certification path toward flight autonomy, with further stages of the process due to follow before the Merlin Pilot platform reaches full certification.