Xwing, an autonomous aviation startup, is now scaling operations and recruiting after it closed a $4 million funding round.

Xwing is building a suite of technologies for fully autonomous flight of smaller passenger aircraft. The company’s early focus is on what it sees as the key functions of autonomous flight: sensing, reasoning and control. It is developing and integrating technologies for rotorcraft, general aviation fixed-wing, and the new emerging electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for each of these capabilities.

Sensors

Through the integration of a suite of sensors, Xwing will allow aircraft to ‘perceive’ their surroundings. Xwing’s Autonomy Flight Management System (AFMS) enables the aircraft to then act upon the information from its surroundings. It will integrate with air traffic control, generate flight paths to navigate the airspace, monitor system health, and address all contingencies to ensure passenger safety.

Seismic shift

Marc Piette,Xwing Founder and CEO, said: “Aviation is currently undergoing what will be a seismic shift. In the not-so-distant future, technology will dramatically change the way people and goods move and transform transportation as a whole.

“Xwing has brought together experts in optionally piloted vehicles, unmanned systems, and certified avionics, to develop key autonomous flight technology and accelerate this change.”

Xwing was founded by entrepreneur and software executive Marc Piette in 2016.

Piette says he wants to “bring together aviation industry experts to partner and collaborate in order to challenge conventional thinking and speed up overall market adoption”.

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