The FAA's $875 Million SMART Platform Is Live Around Washington: What AI in Air Traffic Management Means for Merlin Pilot

The FAA Has Started Using AI to Manage Traffic in the Nation's Airspace, Beginning With the National Capital Region – Demonstrating a Regulatory Open-Mindedness Toward the Benefits of AI That We Support

On September 21 the FAA began limited operations of SMART, the Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories platform, in the airspace around Washington, D.C.[1] Air Space Intelligence is building it under a 12-year, $875 million contract awarded in June.[2] SMART combines about 200 data streams to show where traffic is headed and where congestion may form. The FAA says it does not replace controllers or take control of any aircraft.[1]

We think the launch marks a federal decision that AI now belongs in the routine management of the airspace, a view Merlin has built on for years. Merlin Pilot is being built to handle air traffic control communications on the aircraft side, as it demonstrated at the Project NEXUS kickoff in Texas on September 10, where it also took off, re-planned in flight to avoid a threat and landed autonomously.[3] The Automated Communication System behind that capability, which uses AI-based natural language processing, reached Stage of Involvement 3 with New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority in August, and the regulator's issue paper on certifying it is concluded.[4]

SMART works the ground side of the conversation, and we believe the aircraft side has to keep pace. The agency is putting AI into the flow of traffic to manage demand earlier and cut delays while it recruits and trains more controllers, with a reported 4,000 in the hiring pipeline.[1] That pairing matches how we think about autonomy. Merlin Pilot is being designed to take on responsibilities pilots carry today so that crews, operators and the airspace as a whole can do more, and do it safely, alongside the pilots and controllers being trained now. When the regulator responsible for the National Airspace System turns to AI to help the people managing traffic, we believe the case for aircraft that can take those instructions and act on them safely gets easier to make. That is the case we have been building with regulators, state and federal officials and our defense customers, and we expect to follow the SMART rollout closely as it expands beyond Washington.

Forward-Looking Statements

This post contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements regarding: the anticipated outcomes, timing, and scope of TxDOT's Project NEXUS and the FAA's eVTOL and Advanced Air Mobility Integration Pilot Program (eIPP); Merlin's expectations regarding the capabilities, performance, and applications of the Merlin Pilot autonomy platform; and the anticipated benefits and future development of Merlin's autonomous flight technology generally. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, assumptions, and projections about future events and trends. These forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including without limitation the risks and uncertainties detailed under the section entitled "Risk Factors" of our final prospectus, dated May 13, 2026, filed with the SEC on May 13, 2026, and our subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, which are available from the SEC. Except as required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements after the date of this press release.