Epic Aircraft has secured FAA certification for Garmin Autoland on its E1000 AX, making the Bend, Oregon-based single-engine turboprop the latest aircraft approved to use Garmin’s autonomous emergency landing system. The approval, unveiled on 30 September, clears the way for the safety feature to be installed on the model, which was already type certificated in July 2025.
Autoland is designed to take control if the pilot becomes incapacitated, automatically select a suitable airport and runway, and complete the landing sequence without human input. The system works with Garmin’s Autothrottle and G1000 NXi avionics suite, and can also communicate with air traffic control, brief passengers, bring the aircraft to a stop and shut down the engine. Epic says the E1000 AX is the only high-performance single-engine aircraft with multiple Autoland activation buttons placed throughout the cabin.
The certification expands a small but growing group of aircraft equipped with Garmin’s emergency autonomous landing capability. For the E1000 AX, that adds a high-value redundancy layer for owners and operators of single-engine turboprops, where pilot incapacitation is one of the most serious in-flight contingencies. Public reporting does not indicate whether customer deliveries with Autoland have already begun, but the approval removes the final regulatory hurdle for the feature on the aircraft.