An autonomous-aviation startup called Xwing recently secured $4 million in funding.

The company is reportedly focused on the software stack that will enable pilotless flight of small passenger aircraft.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Xwing’s CEO Marc Piette says that while he was pursuing his pilot’s license, he saw restraint when it comes to smaller aircraft, but he also saw potential.

“It became pretty apparent that there were major issues with the general aviation industry with smaller aircraft,” Piette said.

“And yet it had enormous potential to change the way people moved around.”

Some of the restraints that Piette sees when it comes to small passenger aircraft include the skill level required to fly a plane and the cost of earning a pilot’s license and accessing a plane. Low sales of small aircraft across the world have also depressed innovation and kept prices high.

Additionally, even when people have both a license and an aircraft, they still must travel from a small airport to their final destination.

With these issues in mind, Xwing is focusing on the key functions of autonomous flight, such as sensing, reasoning and control. The company’s system is designed to work with different kinds of aircraft, and this was demonstrated over the course of a year and a half in which the system was tested on a subscale fixed-wing aircraft. More recently, the system was tested on a helicopter.

Xwing is developing and integrating its technologies for a variety of aircraft, including rotorcraft, general aviation fixed-wing and the emerging electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

Xwing’s sensor integration software gives aircraft the ability to perceive the world around it, and reliably detect ground-based and airborne hazards and precisely determine the vehicle’s position.

The company’s perception technology is the building block for autonomous aircraft, and Xwing says that it can also be used to increase the operational envelope of current-day piloted aircraft.

From here, Xwing’s Autonomy Flight Management System (AFMS) allows the aircraft to act upon the information from its surroundings. Xwing says that the system will “integrate with air traffic control, generate flight paths to navigate the airspace, monitor system health and address all contingencies to ensure passenger safety.”

​According to the TechCrunch article, Xwing is currently discussing integrating the system into the aircraft of various large companies.