Black Swift Technologies (BST), a leader in advanced uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS), has been awarded a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contract to support the continued development of the company’s next-generation SwiftCore Flight Management System (FMS).
The SwiftCore FMS is a highly modular, adaptable solution designed to enhance autonomy, security, and integration in uncrewed aerial vehicles for high-stakes missions.
Awarded under NASA SBIR Subtopic A2.02: Enabling Aircraft Autonomy, this funding highlights the growing demand for robust, flexible autonomous systems capable of meeting the complex requirements of both government and commercial aerospace applications.
SwiftCore FMS is engineered to overcome longstanding barriers in UAS autonomy through a modular, hierarchical architecture. Unlike traditional monolithic avionics systems, SwiftCore utilizes distributed intelligent hardware nodes connected via an open, message-based communication framework built on a publisher-subscriber (pub/sub) model with dynamic service discovery.
Jack S. Elston, CEO and Co-Founder of Black Swift Technologies, said, “This NASA SBIR award is a testament to our team’s relentless pursuit of innovative solutions that directly address the complex challenges faced by autonomous systems. The SwiftCore FMS is a commitment to empowering our partners with the tools they need to achieve mission success, safely and efficiently, even in the most demanding environments.”
Key design advantages
- Hot-Swappable Components: Sensors, actuators, autopilots, and onboard computers can be replaced or upgraded independently without system downtime, accelerating integration cycles and minimizing risk.
- Layered Control Architecture: The system supports a stackable control approach—from low-level sensor-actuator interfaces to advanced multi-vehicle coordination and machine-learning-driven autonomy. Each layer is independently replaceable or upgradable, ensuring mission adaptability.
- Rapid Algorithm Integration: SwiftCore enables seamless incorporation of emerging technologies such as machine learning for autonomous decision-making and vision-based obstacle avoidance—core to NASA’s objectives for advancing aircraft autonomy.
The Phase I SBIR contract will allow Black Swift Technologies to pursue several technical goals aimed at elevating mission capability and reducing certification burdens:
- Advanced Modular Architecture: Expansion of SwiftCore’s control and sensing layers, with standardized pub/sub messaging protocols and service discovery tools to simplify integration across diverse UAS platforms.
- Multi-Platform Compatibility: Enhancement of SwiftCore’s platform-agnostic design to seamlessly support fixed-wing, multirotor, and VTOL aircraft with minimal interface modification.
- Secure AI Integration via Safe Sandbox: Implementation of a secure, containerized “safe sandbox” environment to allow the integration and testing of experimental control modules—including AI and ML—while ensuring system security and fallback redundancy through continuous input validation.
- Machine Learning–Enabled In-Flight Tuning: Development and demonstration of onboard ML models capable of real-time tuning of flight control loops. These models will be trained using historical flight data and deployed on NDAA-compliant avionics hardware integrated with SwiftCore. Bench and flight tests will be conducted on the BST S2 UAS, a proven system developed under previous NASA SBIR efforts.
With nearly 20 years of flight operations, including autonomous missions into hurricane eyewalls for NOAA, Black Swift Technologies has demonstrated the durability and sophistication of its systems in extreme environments. The company has successfully completed nine NASA Airworthiness Flight Safety Review Boards (AFSRB) and was the first to pass NASA’s new Unmanned Commercial Aviation Services (UCAS) review, underscoring a deep commitment to safety, compliance, and mission readiness.
The SwiftCore FMS offers a scalable, future-proof autonomy solution for government agencies such as NASA, NOAA, USGS, and the DoD, as well as commercial applications in precision agriculture, aerial surveying, and infrastructure inspection. Its robust design enables:
- High-reliability operations with modular redundancy
- Rapid integration of evolving sensor and control technologies
- Safe, certifiable AI integration for autonomous mission execution
As UAS integration into the National Airspace System (NAS) continues to accelerate, SwiftCore positions Black Swift Technologies at the forefront of autonomous flight innovation.
