Joby Aviation is testing an autonomous Cessna Caravan with the United States Air Force, part of “a successful demonstration and validation of its SuperpilotTM autonomous flight technology.” The 208 Caravan logged more than 7,000 miles and 40 flight hours over the Pacific Ocean and Hawaii. A similar Cessna 208 Caravan has been flying similar missions for Reliable Robotics. And yet a third Caraban is flying for Merlin Labs on the U. S. East Coast and in New Zealand. The three companies have chosen to test their autonomous systems on Caravans because of the craft’s reliability and availability worldwide.
Over 3,000 Caravans worldwide and their Pratt & Whitney PT-6 turboprop engines contribute to their ongoing popularity.
Joby and Its Superpilot
According to a company press release, Joby’s autonomous control system, Superpilot, was integrated into a Cessna Caravan 208, and tasked with a variety of missions, including:
Mission Readiness: Superpilot demonstrated the capability to execute rapid cargo deliveries, hub-and-spoke logistics, inter-island transport, dynamic retasking, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) profiles.
Operational Versatility: Flights were successfully conducted in all classes of airspace (B, C, D and uncontrolled) and under both visual and instrument flight rules.
Airlift Capabilities: Superpilot piloted a total of 7,342 miles over 43.7 hours. Within the exercise, the aircraft completed six sorties, flying for 14 hours covering 2,416 miles. The campaign also included a round-trip ferry flight of 4,925 miles, with Superpilot successfully handling a Pacific Ocean crossing, landing, and taxi at destination airports.
Superpilot performed according to plan, with a safety pilot on board for those just-in-case moments, and ground control taking command at various times. Greg Bowles, Chief Policy Officer at Joby, said , ““The exercise demonstrated Superpilot’s ability to operate in complex, real-world scenarios with the precision and reliability demanded by the U.S. government,”
The US Department of Defense has requested $9.4 billion in its FY26 budget to promote autonomous and hybrid aircraft, as the US Air Force is currently struggling to efficiently support low-volume, high-urgency, and high-risk deliveries in “large operational theaters.” Autonomous small aircraft would free larger. more expensive machines for other missions.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Gilbert, AFWERX Prime division chief, explained, “REFORPAC (Return of Forces to Pacific) was an opportunity to demonstrate the technology in a realistic environment and highlight the potential impact of these autonomous systems. The lessons learned from this exercise participation are vital to guiding our focus.” Joby and Reliable Robotics fielded two of the 300 aircraft involved in the exercises.
Paul Sciarra, executive chairman of Joby, looks at even broader horizons for his company. “Recent conflicts have certainly shown that the sort of paradigm of large, expensive, crewed helicopters for a wide variety of missions may not be the right one. So we think we’ve got an opportunity in conjunction with L3[Harris] to essentially build something that is cheaper, quieter, autonomous, and essentially flexible for a wide range of use cases.” Superpilot is an outgrowth of Joby’s acquisition of X-Wing, an early developer of autonomous flight.
Reliable Robotics and Its Reliable Autonomous System
Reliable Robotics founder and CEO Robert Rose says, “The military has been buying autonomous aircraft and using autonomous aircraft for decades. What’s different about what we’re doing is it’s civilian-certifiable technology, and it integrates in with civilian airspaces.” This distinction is true for all three companies highlighted here.
That, of course, means that all three systems can be integrated into military of civilian use. the laws of physics and flight being true regardless of their application. That also proves true for the mission profiles for all three companies. Joby and Reliable Robotics aircraft flew the same trans-Pacific trips and executed essentially the same set of demonstrations.
The Air Force purchased one of Roliable Robotics’ Caravans for $17.4 million that included integration and testing of the Reliable Autonomous System, carried out during the REFORPAC maneuvers.
According to Rose, Reliable’s system “can guide an aircraft through all phases of flight — ‘from gate to gate’ — without a pilot on board, Rose said. The system requires a remote pilot in a control center who uses the radio and programs the aircraft, but who does not hand-fly the plane from far away.” This integration of ground control and on-board autonomy is an ongoing feature of such craft. As reported here, Chinese firm eHang has been performing such integrated control since at least 2017.
Merlin Labs performed a similar set of missions in a more westerly location.
Merlin Labs and Its Pilot
Merlin Labs calls its system simply, Pilot.
The company uses the term agnostic to refer to the system’s indifference to whatever platform in which it’s installed, just like Joby’s and Reliable Robotics’ systems. This seems a bit strange, using this term to describe a thing in which users must place total faith.
So far, in pursuit of its agnostic outlook, Merlin has installed its software-driven equipment on five different aircraft, including a United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) C-130J and a U. S. Air Force KC-135. (Imagine a future event in which a tanker and the plane to be refueled are flying autonomously.)
Merlin has great hopes for future applications in America and New Zealand. “Building a highly assured core also enables us to gradually expand to more dissimilar aircraft. When we do this right, weʼll have a common “brainˮ that can work across air vehicles, with dramatically different capabilities. Importantly, we’ll be able to translate that to civilian aircraft, which is work that we’ve already started with our first of its kind civil certification program in a joint effort with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand.”
That all three different approaches to artificial intelligence platforms completed their missions with REFORPAC indicates a high level of technological readiness. The next few years will see whether they can be part of military and civil aviation.
