eVTOL Developer Now Hunting for UAS Contracts

Joby Aviation snapped up Xwing Inc. in the hopes of bolstering its Autonomy Division, using the firm's Superpilot software suite.

Joby apparently felt that it was easier just to grab something off the shelf instead of starting from square one, and Xwing was fairly good to go. In operation since 2016, the firm had made Superpilot to be the "world’s first fully autonomous gate-to-gate flight technology", using it to complete hundreds of fully automated flights and even more auto-landings. Xwing became the first to receive an official project designation for the certification of a large unmanned aerial system from the Federal Aviation Administration in 2023, and the first to receive an Air Force Military Flight Release in 2024. Xwing used a decidedly more vintage aircraft than Joby's newfangled eVTOL gear, however, showing off their autonomous capability with a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan. Superpilot should provide a solid base to use, being quite fleshed out. Given how electronic Joby's current work is, integration shouldn't be too much of a stretch. Once complete, they'll be on the cutting edge on both ends of the hailable air-taxi industry, whether regulators decide all aircraft have to be crewed, or they can be operated sans pilots at all.

“The aircraft we are certifying will have a fully-qualified pilot on board, but we recognize that a future generation of autonomous aircraft will play an important part in unlocking our vision of making clean and affordable aerial mobility as accessible as possible," said JoeBen Bevirt, CEO of Joby. “The exceptionally talented Xwing team has not only made unparalleled progress on the development and certification of vision systems, sensor fusion and decision-making autonomous technologies, but they’ve also successfully demonstrated the real-life application of their technology, flying hundreds of fully autonomous flights in the national airspace. We’re honored to bring them onboard at Joby as we continue on our mission of building a next generation aviation company.”

“Xwing’s goal of connecting communities with clean and affordable autonomous flight aligns closely with Joby’s long-term vision," said Maxime Gariel, CTO of Xwing. "I am incredibly proud of each member of the Xwing team and everything this talented group has achieved to date. For the past 7 years, our team has broken barriers to advance aviation autonomy. Now, as we join forces with the leading electric air-taxi developer, I can’t imagine a better home for the Xwing team to realize our shared vision.”

FMI: www.jobyaviation.com