🅰️Kyle

Husband. Father. Entrepreneur. ASTS Investor. No financial or professional advice here.

[M🅰️RI peterson @marijiggwan]

All newbies to space chasing that $SPCX go check out this podcast:

[🅰️Kyle @callmekyle528]

@amitisinvesting Wild.

[🅰️Kyle @callmekyle528]

@FreddyLA7 Shoot the guns, Freddy.

[Anp🅰️nman @spacanpanman]

$ASTS: Where does $ASTS trade when T-Mobile joins AT&T and Verizon as strategic partners of AST SpaceMobile to provide consumers true space-based cellular broadband coverage?

[🅰️Kyle @callmekyle528]

@Mappy6984 Boy do I have some news for her!

[Matthew George @NotMattGeorge]

Learn more here. https://t.co/e39cmGsr6r

[🅰️Kyle @callmekyle528]

@itschrisray

[Merlin FlightClub @MRLNFlightClub]

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.

https://t.co/yYrGlyfIJ0

[🅰️Kyle @callmekyle528]

@asymmetryenjyr @NotMattGeorge @BridgerAero @MerlinAero

[Merlin @MerlinAero]

Read more in this blog post. https://t.co/keiXlUUdcH

[🅰️Kyle @callmekyle528]

RT @LeoCapital_01: 4x oversubscribed means 75% of institutional demand goes unfilled. Hundreds of fund managers who spent two weeks learnin…

[🅰️Kyle @callmekyle528]

@CoachGAru I have no idea, just a feeling based on how well my lending is paying & de-risking playing out. Now w/ commercial service guidance also is bullish.

[🅰️Kyle @callmekyle528]

$MRLN short squeeze is imminent

[Shawarma Capital @ShawarmaCapital]

New to $MRLN? Here’s the whole thing,
and the part the tape is getting wrong.

Merlin Labs puts certifiable AI in the cockpit of real, crewed, fixed-wing aircraft. Not eVTOL toys, not remote pilots. It came public via de-SPAC in March, and the entire bear case is one word: dilution.

So here’s the actual alpha. The only thing that ever lowered the preferred’s conversion price was the company issuing new stock below it. That is the $12 to $6.67 move everyone points at. On the call, management said it plainly: no dilution, no capital raise. That kills the mechanism. A conversion price cannot grind lower on a raise that is never coming.

What is left is a single one-time VWAP reset this October, floored at $5.00, and the stock already trades above the $6.67 conversion. It is out of the money. The “death spiral” people fear is structurally defused.

Now layer the runway: even loading in the jet program, maritime, and new hires, cash-out does not land until Q3 2027 to Q1 2028. That is the exact window management guides first New Zealand commercial revenue service: 2027. Funded to its own catalyst.
And certification is in the verification gate (SOI 3 of 4, concurrent NZ CAA + FAA), one step from the compliance finish.

A company financed right up to the moment its story is supposed to turn real, with the dilution fear taken off the table by management itself.

Sells on press releases.
Re-rates on gates.

Estimates, not advice.

[Shawarma Capital @ShawarmaCapital]

$MRLN alpha most people can’t see: the flight log.

Merlin’s entire job is certifying cockpit autonomy. The verification stage of that (SOI 3) can only be cleared by flying the test campaign. So the real tell isn’t press releases. It’s sorties.

We track every cert-candidate tail on ADS-B. The signal:

→ Nov–Mar: ~0.5–1 sortie/day. Quiet.

→ April: jumps to 1.9/day, exactly as management cleared SOI 1+2 and flew its first automated takeoffs.

→ May: 2.1/day.

→ June (first 8 days): 3.3/day. +58% over May.

The verification campaign isn’t plateauing. It’s accelerating, and it’s NZ-led out of Kerikeri, the exact site they’re guiding for 2027 commercial launch.
Test flying is the leading indicator for SOI 3, and SOI 3 is the last gate before final compliance sign-off.

This is what “approaching the final phases” looks like in raw data, weeks before it ever hits a filing.

Watch the sortie rate. Not advice.

[Merlin @MerlinAero]

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 in 2027.

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.

[Matthew George @NotMattGeorge]

No traditionally crewed, fixed-wing aircraft has ever flown autonomously in commercial revenue service. We're targeting New Zealand in 2027.

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'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.

[🅰️Kyle @callmekyle528]

@DonWiggins20 Me too, turned on my lending since it’s paying so well.

[🅰️Kyle @callmekyle528]

@NotMattGeorge $MRLN

[🅰️Kyle @callmekyle528]

@Spybef0rey0ubuy Thank you! What a roller coaster.