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.

The collaboration with IAI is part of Condor, Merlin’s new product family for large, multi-crew aircraft. As a leading aerospace and defense OEM, IAI brings deep expertise in aircraft design and certification, advanced avionics, and MRO. The company is also a global leader in passenger-to-freighter aircraft conversions, with extensive and established relationships with leading freighter operators and lessors worldwide. 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.

The agreement between Merlin and IAI builds on growing industry interest in advancing AI-powered autonomy across commercial aviation. Together with Merlin’s recently announced relationship with cargo aircraft lessor World Star Aviation, we believe the collaboration reflects increasing momentum behind the development of certifiable autonomous capabilities for cargo aircraft and the broader aviation ecosystem. Through partnerships that combine operational, engineering, certification, and fleet expertise, the industry is taking important steps toward the future integration of autonomous technologies into existing aircraft platforms.