Xwing Valuation Reaches $400M - Autonomous Aviation Funding

Xwing Achieves $400 Million Valuation Following New Funding

Following a successful gate-to-gate autonomous flight demonstration, Xwing has secured $40 million in funding. This investment brings the company’s post-money valuation to $400 million.

The company’s strategic focus is on growth. Plans include a tripling of the engineering team and the eventual implementation of routine, fully autonomous commercial cargo flights.

Developing Autonomous Flight Technology

Xwing is dedicated to developing a comprehensive technology suite for aircraft autonomy. This includes adapting aircraft like the Cessna Grand Caravan 208B. Founder Marc Piette highlighted key challenges: “the perception problem, the planning problem and the control problem.”

To address these challenges, Xwing has integrated lidar, radar, and cameras. Retrofitting of servomotors controlling flight surfaces has also been completed. These systems are designed to work in concert, providing spatial awareness and precise flight execution.

Progress and Operational Structure

To date, the AutoFlight system has been utilized in nearly 200 missions. A safety pilot remains onboard during all flights.

Furthermore, a ground control operator facilitates communication between the autonomous aircraft and air traffic control. This operator acts as an intermediary, ensuring a seamless experience for air traffic controllers.

Piette explained that automating direct communication with air traffic control isn’t currently prioritized. For safety-critical applications, a human operator is deemed more reliable. The ground operator effectively communicates on the aircraft’s behalf, presenting a standard pilot-controller interaction.

Regulatory Approvals and Safety Standards

The company operates under an experimental airworthiness certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This certificate, expanded in August of last year, includes a special flight permit for optionally piloted aircraft (OPA).

The eventual removal of the safety pilot is planned, contingent upon the establishment of complete system redundancies. This includes backup systems for all sensors and computer components.

Commercial aviation maintains exceptionally high safety standards. Startups in this sector must demonstrate a catastrophic failure rate of no more than once per hundred million flight hours for smaller Class III aircraft.

Investment and Business Activities

This funding round was spearheaded by Blackhorn Ventures, with contributions from ACME Capital, Loup Ventures, R7 Partners, Eniac Ventures, Alven Capital, and Array Ventures. Total funding to date amounts to $55 million.

Beyond autonomous flights, Xwing is actively engaged in manned commercial cargo operations. A contract with a major logistics company was signed on December 1.

By equipping aircraft with data-collecting sensors, Xwing generates valuable training data for its algorithms. This data includes pilot-controller communications and received flight instructions.

Future Outlook

Over the next year, Xwing intends to significantly expand its workforce and increase its commercial operations.

The company aims to operate autonomous commercial cargo flights with a safety pilot onboard, utilizing an experimental ticket and FAA exemption. This milestone is anticipated within the next 12 months.

Following this, the focus will shift to removing the safety pilot entirely. However, full system certification will be required to eliminate all airspace restrictions.