Modern aviation depends heavily on satellite navigation. Jamming or spoofing can create a single point of failure for critical economic, defense, and strategic activity.
Infleqtion and its partners completed first-of-their-kind commercial flight trials of quantum navigation technology aboard QinetiQ’s RJ100 Airborne Technology Demonstrator.
Aircraft need accurate, resilient positioning, navigation, and timing that can complement satellite systems when GPS or GNSS signals are unavailable or compromised.
GBP8M
UK government backing
2
Quantum technologies tested in flight
2030
UK mission target for aircraft deployment
The team tested the compact Tiqker optical atomic clock and a tightly confined ultracold-atom system, core elements of a Quantum Inertial Navigation System.
Timing - Tiqker provides an ultra-accurate clock reference.
Inertial sensing - Ultracold atoms support quantum accelerometers and gyroscopes.
Platform - Tests used QinetiQ's modified RJ100 aircraft.
The flights were the first publicly acknowledged tests of this type of quantum navigation technology aboard an aircraft in the UK. They demonstrated the potential for highly accurate, resilient PNT independent of traditional satellite navigation.
The successful trials were a milestone toward the UK’s National Quantum Strategy goal of deploying quantum navigation systems on aircraft by 2030.
Case Study
Real-world applications demonstrating quantum advantage
National Security
Context Submarines cannot rely entirely on GNSS for timing and navigation. Clock drift can degrade accuracy during prolonged operations in GPS-denied environments.…
AI & ML
Context Tactical systems must fuse GPS, inertial, and vision data at the edge, often with limited connectivity and with signals that may…
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