Autonomous flight startup Merlin Labs lands $120M and U.S. Air Force partnership – TechCrunch

Autonomous flight is a grand challenge in aviation -- and a gold mine. The first company to crack it at scale stands to reap handsome profits from transportation and logistics alone. In 2020, the size of the global cargo airline industry was $110.8 billion, according to Statista, and one source estimates that it'll generate hundreds of billions in revenue by 2027. Xwing is one of the startups chasing after self-flying planes, as is Reliable Robotics, Pyka and the unicorn Volocopter. Roughly a year ago, Boston-based Merlin Labs emerged from stealth with an autonomous flight system designed to be installed in existing aircraft.