Maxime Gariel is the Chief Technology Officer at Xwing, an aviation company on a mission to radically improve human mobility through the use of fully autonomous airplanes. Maxime is a pilot whose lifelong dream is to make airplanes fly themselves. His work on autonomous flight systems includes fixed-wing to rotary-wing aircraft ranging from small to large aircraft. Prior to Xwing, Maxime was the Principal GNC (Guidance, Navigation & Control) Engineer at Rockwell Collins where he built autonomous aircraft systems like the AgustaWestland SW4 Solo autonomous helicopter. Maxime is a former MIT Postdoctoral Researcher of aerospace systems, and holds a PhD and Masters of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech.​