Air Force Awards Xwing Autonomous Flight System Development Contract

Xwing and the U.S. Air Force have begun autonomous flight trials of the firm’s Superpilot flight control system aboard a Cessna 208 Caravan.

Jack Daleo

Thursday, May 11, 2023 at 06:22 PM ET

Verified

Xwing and the U.S. Air Force have begun autonomous flight trials of the firm’s Superpilot flight control system aboard a Cessna 208 Caravan. [Courtesy: Xwing]

Key Takeaways:

Autonomous aviation firm Xwing secured a Phase II contract with the U.S. Air Force's AFWERX Prime program to conduct 21-month trials of its "Superpilot" autonomous flight control system on a Cessna 208 Caravan for military applications.
The "Superpilot" system is designed for fully autonomous operation, handling navigation and obstacle avoidance, with initial trials including onboard pilots for feedback before transitioning to entirely remote flight for missions like cargo delivery, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and medevac.
Xwing's technology is on an accelerated path to FAA certification, being the first large unmanned aircraft system (UAS) with AI to receive official project designation, which will enable the company to transition its existing commercial cargo fleet (e.g., for UPS) to fully remote operations.

See a mistake? Contact us.

Bay Area-based Xwing, which already boasts contracts with NASA and the FAA, may have just nabbed its most important partnership yet.

The autonomous aviation firm on Thursday announced it had been awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with the U.S. Air Force’s AFWERX Prime program, an initiative launched in 2020 to speed the commercialization of emerging markets—and to give the Air Force a pipeline for groundbreaking technology.