Sailors of the past navigated by the stars, and pilots of tomorrow will look inward for guidance. Way inward. To atoms.
Aviation is testing quantum navigation – using atoms to detect rotation and acceleration – as a substitute for GPS. Not only is it precise, but also it can’t be blocked, jammed or spoofed by an adversary.
The world’s first test using quantum sensors instead of GPS to produce real-time navigation data on an airplane happened this summer.