Engineers use quantum tech to replace GPS for flight navigation. TechSpot is the place to go for tech advice and analysis you can trust.
Forward looking: As the reliance on satellite navigation increases, aviation faces increasing risks from GPS jamming. Commercial and military flights are at risk from disruptions, whether they come from hostile actors or technical failures. Engineers are racing against time to develop resilient alternatives. New technologies are moving from the labs to the skies.
Airbus, a Silicon Valley-based company that specializes in artificial intelligence and quanta sensing, has teamed up with SandboxAQ to develop a new technology.
Test an innovative approach to navigation. Their collaboration focuses primarily on quantum-sensing systems, specifically the MagNav System. This compact instrument uses subtle magnetic cues to pinpoint an aircraft’s position, even when satellites are not working. MagNav was carried aloft by Airbus subsidiary Acubed’s “flight lab” testing aircraft for more than 150 hours during a flight across the continental United States. The navigation system measures “fingerprints” magnetic signals beneath each stretch of terrain, and then compares them to detailed magnetic maps with onboard AI. The result is location fixes that meet and sometimes exceed the Federal Aviation Administration standards for inflight precision.
SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary told the Wall Street Journal that while additional testing and certifications are needed before the technology sees widespread adoption, early results are promising and represent a turning point.
“The hard part was proving that the technology could work,” Hidary noted. “It’s the first novel absolute navigation system to our knowledge in the last 50 years.”
Traditional GPS relies on signals broadcast from orbiting satellites – a system that, while robust, is increasingly vulnerable to disruption. Spoofing broadcasts false location data from the ground to deceive onboard receivers, while jamming overwhelms signals to disable navigation systems. Once rare, these attacks now occur regularly in global hotspots, affecting thousands of flights and posing a serious risk to civilian aviation.
Quantum sensing offers a fundamentally different approach. Unlike GPS, which transmits digital, hackable data, quantum magnetic sensors are “essentially unjammable and unspoofable.” All measurements occur inside the aircraft, with data derived solely from the Earth’s naturally occurring and immutable magnetic fields.
This system works by firing photons from a laser at an electron. The electron then absorbs the photon and re-emits it as it relaxes. This process produces an energy signature that reflects the strength of the local magnetic field – information that is unique to each square meter on Earth’s surface. MagNav’s AI interprets the signature and compares it to reference maps. It then converts raw quantum measurements into useful location data. MagNav maintained positional accuracy to within two nautical miles in recent flight tests 100 percent of time. It achieved even higher precision, often within 550 meters.
Quantum sensing’s potential extends beyond aviation. Joe Depa is Ernst & Young’s Global Chief Innovation officer. He says that quantum sensors can be used to improve medical diagnosis by detecting weak magnetic signals in the brain or heart. They could also aid national defense, by detecting hidden objects such as submarines or tunnels. This technology is not a few years or decades off.
“We’re not talking about something 20 years out,” Depa said. “This is here and now.”
