Joined October 2025
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11 Photos and videos
Jun 12
CNBC headline this morning from $MRLN partner Honeywell
“Honeywell CEO says Al will
'redefine automation' as labor shortages mount”
Great to see the investment thesis playing out. Automation will be crucial to this industry.
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Jun 10
GOING FIRST: COMMERCIAL AUTONOMOUS FLIGHT IN NEW ZEALAND IN 2027 $MRLN
- @NotMattGeorge | Founder and CEO, Merlin Labs
Today I want to share more about our plan to commercialize autonomy and our path to certification, in New Zealand and the United States. In the history of aviation, no traditionally crewed, fixed-wing aircraft has flown autonomously in commercial revenue service. Our goal is for Merlin to be the first to do it, and we are working to get there in 2027 from our test facility in Kerikeri, New Zealand. By commercial service, I mean real autonomy on real aircraft, flying real routes, in revenue-generating operations.
We picked New Zealand as a key part of our test operations because it gives us a unique environment to build autonomy that holds up in the most challenging conditions. Since 2022 we have operated a flight test and development center in the far north of the country. New Zealand's maritime domain is roughly the size of the continental United States. It has some of the most isolated communities in the world, diverse terrain, and rapidly changing weather. Aviation in New Zealand is essential infrastructure that connects people, businesses, and communities. The Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand has engaged seriously with us and held us to a high standard, and that is the environment we want.
To date we have logged hundreds of autonomous test flights using the Merlin Pilot, the same AI-powered autonomy system we are working to certify with the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand and on a concurrent validation pathway with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. We believe we have passed meaningful markers on the certification path this year and are approaching its final phases. We are designing the system to fly, from takeoff to touchdown, under the same regulatory oversight as any other aircraft in the airspace.
As we noted on our most recent earnings call, the Merlin Pilot is designed to become a multi-application, multi-airframe platform. This means that we are pursuing different use cases for the technology simultaneously. In this context, the commercial milestone we are pursuing in New Zealand is an important complement to our defense work. No one has done this, because it is very hard. Building the technology is hard, and getting it certified is even harder. We believe this is what the future of aviation looks like, and we are focused on getting there. We believe that flying real commercial routes with the Merlin Pilot is proof of our thesis: autonomy built from first principles, shaped by certification requirements from day one, and validated in real operational environments can produce a system regulators can certify, operators can deploy, and communities can rely on.
merlinlabs.com/news/going-fi…
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Jun 10
“Our goal is for Merlin to be the first company to do that with real autonomy on real planes flying real routes in revenue-generating operations.
We're targeting New Zealand in 2027.”
Commercial flights with $MRLN coming soon? 👀
Jun 10
No traditionally crewed, fixed-wing aircraft has ever flown autonomously in commercial revenue service.
Our goal is for Merlin to be the first company to do that with real autonomy on real planes flying real routes in revenue-generating operations.
We're targeting New Zealand in 2027.
We've been operating a flight test center in Kerikeri since 2022, logging hundreds of autonomous flights with Merlin Pilot, the same system we're certifying with New Zealand's CAA on a concurrent validation pathway with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). We're now approaching the final phases of that certification journey.
Many of the companies attempting to commercialize autonomous flight are using custom-built eVTOL airframes or remote operators. We're doing it the hard way, on fixed-wing aircraft with autonomy in the cockpit, because we believe that's what the future of aviation actually looks like.
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Jun 10
I think it’s important to note that $MRLN does international business.
Currently working with the US & New Zealand, we think there are major opportunities ahead to work within many countries in the future.
Jun 10
In 2022, we built our facility in Kerikeri, New Zealand with a clear goal: to be the first company to fly a traditionally crewed, fixed-wing aircraft autonomously in commercial revenue service.
We've made meaningful progress on our certification path in the first half of this year and believe we are entering the final phases before commercial service. Pending regulatory acceptance, we intend to launch commercial operations in New Zealand with certified aircraft flown by Merlin Pilot from takeoff to touchdown, under real regulatory oversight, on real routes, in revenue-generating operations.
New Zealand has some of the most isolated communities in the world, diverse terrain, and rapidly changing weather conditions. Aviation here is essential infrastructure and the exact environment where certified autonomy needs to prove itself.
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Jun 10
You can now buy $MRLN for prices below when this major de-risking news came out
Who’s loading up?
$MRLN just cleared it with USSOCOM for the C-130J.
Here is exactly what this means and how dramatically it de-risks the thesis.
In military procurement, CDR is the dividing line between a "science project" and a viable product. It means the DoD has rigorously audited Merlin's final design-down to the exact system architecture, software fail-safes, and integration plans-and officially signed off.
From a risk perspective, this is a massive shift:
Technical Risk is Substantially Retired: USSOCOM has formally validated that the Merlin Pilot meets their strict airworthiness and operational standards. The question of "can they engineer a solution that the military accepts?" has been answered with a yes.
The Phase Shift: MRLN is officially off the whiteboard. The mandate is now pure execution: physical hardware integration into the airframe and ground/flight testing.
Revenue Visibility: Clearing this specific hurdle protects and unlocks the next phases of their $105M IDIQ contract.
We aren't talking about SaaS or AI wrappers here. This is hard-tech integration into the most relied-upon transport aircraft in the US military. Passing CDR proves the baseline technology is sound. If the architecture is cleared for the Super Hercules, it creates a scalable, pre-validated blueprint for every other heavy-lift platform in the fleet.
The engineering is validated. The risk profile just fundamentally changed.
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Jun 10
Looks like $MRLN is stacking up use cases:
“Autonomous systems could take on some of the dullest, dirtiest, and most dangerous missions that pilots, including U.S. warfighters, face every day. Agricultural dusting, wildfire suppression, aerial refueling, combat search and rescue, and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) are just a few of the mission sets where autonomous systems could play a critical role.”
Jun 9
What if the greatest opportunity in aviation isn't a new airframe but a smarter cockpit? Merlin CTO Tim Burns explores that question in @FortuneMagazine.
Tim makes the case that autonomy isn't about replacing pilots. It's about giving them a new kind of crew member: one embedded within the aircraft itself that doesn't get tired, can't have a bad day, and can absorb the repetitive, cognitively demanding tasks that pull crews away from what matters most.
The opportunity extends beyond efficiency. As adversaries rapidly scale autonomous systems of their own, integrating trusted autonomy into defense operations is becoming a national security imperative.
Read the full piece in Fortune here. fortune.com/2026/06/09/auton…
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Merlin FlightClub retweeted
Jun 9
What if the greatest opportunity in aviation isn't a new airframe but a smarter cockpit? Merlin CTO Tim Burns explores that question in @FortuneMagazine.
Tim makes the case that autonomy isn't about replacing pilots. It's about giving them a new kind of crew member: one embedded within the aircraft itself that doesn't get tired, can't have a bad day, and can absorb the repetitive, cognitively demanding tasks that pull crews away from what matters most.
The opportunity extends beyond efficiency. As adversaries rapidly scale autonomous systems of their own, integrating trusted autonomy into defense operations is becoming a national security imperative.
Read the full piece in Fortune here. fortune.com/2026/06/09/auton…
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Jun 10
These are going to be amazing powered by $MRLN autonomous technology
Excited for testing ✈️
The C-130 is built to adapt across every environment.
From moving critical assets like HIMARS to extending airpower through aerial refueling for platforms like the F-35, it delivers when and where it's needed most. That adaptability keeps the mission moving forward. 🇺🇸
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It’s not just $MRLN, everything is smacked.
Who’s buying the dip?
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$11 Price Target $MRLN
As we call it, the undercovered defense gem
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Coming soon 🔜 $MRLN
Jun 9
And one more thing, adoption of Merlin into C130J will be much faster than people expect. I know from experience how military works when it comes to adoption of such solutions. Trust me, this is coming faster than you think.
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Every seat in the $MRLN Flight Club has a story.
Reply with a 🪂 if you’re flying with us - let’s count the crew. Then tell us the most underrated thing about Merlin right now.
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Merlin FlightClub retweeted
Most $MRLN “research” is a screener pull and a hot take on the market cap.
I got the CEO and CFO on a call, and spent 10 parts on what’s not in the public deck.
Nobody else on here has this. And it’s completely free and open to anybody.
Full series in bio.
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I would prefer to be watching $MRLN finally squeeze the shorts
Jun 6
Once you start investing weekends are so boring.
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The administration should get some equity in $MRLN
AI x Military Aircraft’s 🤝
BREAKING: President Trump says the Trump Administration might buy equity stakes in US AI companies and that he will host a meeting with AI executives as soon as next week, per Reuters.
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