Merlin, an autonomous flight company, today announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to advance the development, integration, and certification of AI-powered autonomy for commercial cargo aircraft.
“The agreement initiates a phased engagement, including joint market exploration, engineering collaboration, regulatory preparation, and initial platform selection to lay the groundwork for a definitive commercial agreement and a structured path toward civil certification,” say the companies in a press release.
The collaboration with IAI is part of Condor, Merlin’s new product family for large, multi-crew aircraft. IAI is also a specialist in passenger-to-freighter aircraft conversions. “By combining Merlin’s autonomy expertise with IAI’s engineering depth, certification experience, advanced avionics capabilities, and leadership in passenger-to-freighter conversions, the companies aim to advance autonomous flight technologies for Part 25 aircraft that underpin global air cargo operations,” says the press release.
The agreement between Merlin and IAI builds on growing industry interest in advancing AI-powered autonomy across commercial aviation.
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Merlin and IAI Sign Agreement to Advance AI-Powered
(Image: Merlin)