Signs Deal With Dynamic Aviation, Owner Of Large Private Fleet Of King Airs

Merlin Labs has raised $25 million in funding from GV (formerly Google Ventures) and First Round Capital in order to pursue a 55-aircraft partnership with Dynamic Aviation, and their King Air fleet.

Merlin is reportedly building a certifiable autonomy system for complex fixed-wing aircraft. The company claims to have demonstrated hundreds of autonomous missions on multiple aircraft types, including complex twin turboprop aircraft. Its autonomy platform is aircraft-agnostic, focuses on on-board autonomy rather than remote piloting, and is destined for a wide variety of public- and private-sector aircraft.

Merlin announced the first public implementation of its technology with a partnership with Dynamic Aviation to automate 55 high-performance King Air platforms that will support a wide range of public- and private-sector missions. The first aircraft from the partnership is currently in flight trials in Mojave.

"We're proud to partner with Dynamic to begin the process of moving autonomy from the lab and to the market," said Matthew George, Merlin co-founder and CEO. "This deal represents a major commercial milestone as well as Merlin's commitment to support larger and more complex aircraft."

"We are honored to partner with Merlin by leveraging this leading-edge technology in an operational platform," said Michael Stoltzfus, Dynamic Aviation CEO. "We look forward to serving alongside Merlin to create extraordinary value for customers around the world."

FMI: www.merlinlabs.com, www.dynamicaviation.com