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Reliable Robotics is certifying its continuous autopilot system as a modification for the Cessna Caravan.
Reliable Robotics is entering a critical phase in its effort to certify an automated Cessna Caravan, with one aircraft slated for a yearlong U.S. Air Force deployment in Guam and another being configured for the FAA’s type inspection authorization (TIA) campaign, CEO and co-founder Robert Rose said during a recent visit to the company’s Bay Area headquarters.
Reliable has grown its test fleet from two to four aircraft as it works to balance operational deployments with the detailed execution required to reach TIA–the milestone that marks the official start to FAA certification flight testing.
“We’ve completed all the planning. We’ve started delivering these 8110s to the FAA,” Rose said, referring to compliance documentation submitted under the agency’s certification framework. “The FAA is not the gating factor anymore. It’s all internal execution and the documents that we’re submitting.”
Reliable is advancing two parallel certification efforts: a supplemental type certificate (STC) for the modified Caravan, and a second approval path for the ground control station, command-and-control link and lost-link procedures.
Rose described the road to TIA as a series of steps including hardware and software testing, conformity inspections and submission of compliance documentation.
“Imagine a tree of things that all need to get done,” he said. “You have to submit evidence that the actuator is in the conforming final configuration, then you do it for each set of actuators, and then for all of the actuators. There are manufacturing processes that also need to be approved and inspected.”
“Once you’re in the TIA configuration, what we’ve written in the plan is a series of final FAA observed flight tests,” he added. “It’s essentially a check-the-box exercise to show that everything you did beforehand works when it’s all pulled together.”
The Guam aircraft will use the same core avionics and hardware configuration as the rest of the fleet. It will operate without a pilot onboard, controlled from a ground station via satellite link. Rose said the company intends to begin operations in Guam by October and fly for the Air Force for one year. A separate aircraft in a fully conforming configuration is targeted to receive TIA by year’s end, although Rose described that goal as “aggressive.”
Rose also emphasized that much of the technical validation occurs in simulation and hardware-in-the-loop rigs rather than flight testing.
“The vast majority of our testing—especially the interesting tests—are done in sim,” he said. “It’s not possible, really, to test all the permutations and environmental conditions on the real vehicle, or it’s not safe.”
During the facility tour, engineers demonstrated a remote operations station that mirrors the aircraft’s cockpit avionics, emphasizing that the goal is a routine, predictable operation.
“I like to make the joke, this is the most boring demo I ever give,” said Igor Dolgov, a human-factors engineer, as the system executed a simulated flight. “That’s the whole point of the system. Our pilots say, ‘My goal is to have a boring day.’”
Beyond certification of the automation system itself, Reliable is also developing a phased-array radar that the company ultimately plans to certify under Part 25 and potentially market separately. Executives said the effort grew out of difficulty sourcing legacy systems that met cost, performance and availability requirements.
“We thought that we could go off and buy off-the-shelf radars,” said Larry Surace, Reliable’s vice president of business development and corporate partnerships. “Turns out they didn’t work. They weren’t available. So, we went down the path of building it ourselves.”
Rose said that Reliable’s immediate priorities for 2026 include configuring aircraft, completing testing and compliance activities, managing operational deployments and achieving certification milestones.
“For us, this is about getting the technology shipped,” Rose said. “Getting it deployed. Making aviation safer.”
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