Wizard launches NZ robot planes venture
New Zealand will become a real test bed for what we do in the future.
A dream of opening up career opportunities for Northland youth that didn’t exist when he left school has inspired a Kerikeri man to come home and set up a world-leading business developing robot planes.
Merlin Labs NZ, the first overseas subsidiary of US aviation technology firm Merlin Labs, opened its brandnew base next to Bay of Islands Airport in Kerikeri on Friday.
Shaun Johnson, who joined the Air Force out of seventh form at Kerikeri High School, has returned to his old hometown to lead the groundbreaking venture.
It will start small, as an air freight operation using conventional human-piloted planes and gradually transition to autonomous aircraft which can take off, fly and land by themselves.
In the future, the same technology could be applied to reduce crews on bigger planes, Johnson said.
In Kerikeri, the firm’s first steps will be to integrate its software and hardware into a fleet of Cessna Caravan planes and work with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to certify its systems and make them airlegal.
Johnson said the firm would start flying freight in June with an unmodified aircraft between Northland, Auckland and Palmerston North.
“We want to demonstrate to the regulator and the public that we’re a capable and reliable freight company before we start introducing new technology. And for ourselves, it’s to get our pilots familiar with the routes we’re going to fly and the avionics in the aircraft, because that doesn’t change. We’ll do that for a good year and then start to add our advanced technology as it’s certified,” he said.
At the same time, the company would carry out compliance flight testing with the CAA.
The goal is to start automated takeoff-to-touchdown flights from the start of 2025, with a pilot as a backup.
There is no timeline as yet for flying without a human pilot on board.
“The immediate goals for us are proving our technology in the Caravan, then adding some of those features . . . to bigger aircraft and growing a deeper understanding of what it means to go from two crew to one and then eventually from one to zero. So New Zealand will become a real test bed for what we do in the future.”
Merlin isn’t the only company developing robot planes but its system is unique in that it can take off, join an instrument-flight-rules route and then land, as well as respond to voice commands from air traffic control.
Merlin Labs NZ CEO Shaun Johnson