Merlin, the leading developer of safe, autonomous flight technology for fixed-wing aircraft, today announced that together with its partner, global aerospace and defense leader SNC, it recently conducted the first three test flights in Merlin’s ongoing KC-135 Stratotanker test program at the Pittsburgh Air National Guard Base. Starting July 22, Merlin and SNC were granted a temporary military flight release by the United States Air Force (USAF). The team conducted real-time data collection and analysis to inform the Merlin Pilot’s integration design and flight control tuning for military aircraft.

The flights support an ongoing agreement with Air Mobility Command (AMC) and Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) to design, integrate, test, and demonstrate aspects of the Merlin Pilot on the KC-135. Merlin engineers also joined USAF pilots on data collection flights at MacDill Air Force Base in May 2024. The flights helped the team better understand crew workload drivers for military use cases. Together, these milestones signify Merlin’s progressive system design and integration work to achieve its goal of an in-flight demonstration of the Merlin Pilot in the next year, as well as support broader product alignment to help inform the planned Next Generation Air-Refueling System (NGAS).

“Autonomous capabilities are essential to increasing operational capacity for the USAF and enhancing national security, emphasizing the importance of these data collection flights to properly inform the integration design ahead of flight demonstrations,” said Matt George, CEO and founder, Merlin. “Over the last few months, we’ve achieved important milestones on the KC-135 that allow us to strengthen the relationship between the pilot and the aircraft as well as enhance safety and operational efficiency aboard a vital military aircraft. These are foundational and critical steps that get us closer to advancing and scaling autonomous capabilities across the USAF’s fleet.”