Honeywell Aerospace flies first autonomous aircraft 6 weeks after starting Shield AI Hivemind training, completes two-aircraft ISR mission

Hivemind Enterprise helped Honeywell cut an estimated 54-week autonomy-development effort to six weeks before progressing to multi-aircraft teaming 

PHOENIX (October 13, 2026) — Honeywell Aerospace (Nasdaq: HONA) and Shield AI today announced the completion of two autonomous flight demonstrations, culminating in a coordinated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) mission conducted by two aircraft running Shield AI’s Hivemind. 

Honeywell Aerospace’s autonomy team began training on Hivemind Enterprise, Shield AI’s integrated platform for developing, deploying, and operating autonomous systems, in late April. Six weeks later, in mid-June, the team flew a BFD-SE8 multirotor aircraft owned by Honeywell Aerospace autonomously for the first time using an autonomy stack built on Hivemind Enterprise. The team held its first official demonstration on July 8 in Plymouth, Minnesota, where the aircraft took off on its own, followed a planned route, rerouted around a no-fly zone, and returned to base. 

More recently, two aircraft running Hivemind and equipped with Honeywell Aerospace’s o480 inertial navigation system completed a coordinated ISR mission near Phoenix. The aircraft shared target information and divided mission tasks autonomously, demonstrating multi-aircraft teaming built by Honeywell engineers on Hivemind Enterprise. 

“Honeywell Aerospace engineers flew their first autonomous aircraft within weeks, work their engineering leads estimated would normally take a year,” said Tom Schaefer, vice president of Hivemind Enterprise at Shield AI. “Hivemind Enterprise handled the autonomy basics, so the team could spend its time on its own detection and tracking model. We built Hivemind so partners can work this way.” 

“Open architectures are changing the pace of innovation in aerospace, and this milestone demonstrates how Honeywell Aerospace can rapidly translate advanced autonomy into real-world capability,” said Todd Giles, SVP Engineering and Chief Technology Officer, Honeywell Aerospace. “By combining our expertise in avionics, navigation, sensing, and autonomy, we are helping create a scalable foundation for the next generation of autonomous aircraft and mission systems.” 

Work on the second demonstration began immediately after the July flight. Over three months, Honeywell Aerospace trained and deployed its own target detection and tracking model, built the mission in simulation, and tested it in Minnesota and Arizona. During the Oct. 8 flight near Phoenix, a scout aircraft used onboard cameras and Honeywell’s AI model to detect, identify, and track a target. Hivemind passed the target location to a second aircraft, which navigated autonomously to the target, delivered a payload, and returned to base with the scout.  

Hivemind Enterprise brings together the development environment and onboard autonomy software needed to build, test, deploy, and operate autonomous systems. It provides core capabilities such as route planning, mission management, and communication between aircraft, enabling companies to focus on integrating their own AI models, sensors, and mission capabilities and advancing them from simulation to flight. For Honeywell Aerospace, that meant integrating its own AI-based target detection and tracking model and executing a coordinated mission across two aircraft.  

The flight test builds on the companies’ July 2026 memorandum of understanding, under which Honeywell Aerospace is developing an autonomy software stack on Hivemind Enterprise. Next, the companies will define how Hivemind connects with Honeywell Aerospace’s integrated avionics, navigation, and sensing capabilities. They will also apply the work to larger uncrewed aircraft and to commercial aviation. Hivemind has piloted more than 40 platforms, including F-16s, jet-powered uncrewed aircraft, helicopters, uncrewed surface vessels, ground vehicles, and a satellite in low Earth orbit.

About Shield AI
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai.  Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.  

About Honeywell Aerospace
Honeywell Aerospace (Nasdaq: HONA) is an independent global aerospace and defense company whose critical technologies are broadly deployed on the world’s leading commercial air transport, business aviation, defense and space platforms. These integrated solutions enable safer, more efficient and more reliable missions. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, the company employs more than 36,000 people globally and supports more than 10,000 customers. With a broad portfolio spanning avionics and navigation systems, engines and power systems, and control systems for aircraft, Honeywell Aerospace combines commitment and deep engineering expertise to drive innovation and long-term value for the aerospace industry. For more information, visit aerospace.honeywell.com or follow Honeywell Aerospace Technologies on LinkedIn. 

Media Contacts:

Honeywell Aerospace
Matt Hasson
(480) 772-7535
[email protected]

Shield AI
Lily Hinz
(410) 507-6170
[email protected]