Quantum sensing flies an aircraft with GPS switched off
2026-09-04An Embraer 170 flew 4 hours 23 minutes over the Pacific — Puget Sound to southern Alaska and back — with GPS unavailable, navigating on Honeywell's MagNav quantum magnetometers. The system reads the Earth's crustal magnetic signature and matches it against a map, and DIU reports it improved position accuracy by 89% against the conventional backup methods flown alongside it. Navigation data streamed to the pilots on standard tablets, so fielding it needs no cockpit rebuild. MagNav began in spring 2024 as "Transition of Quantum Sensing"; 72 companies applied and Honeywell Aerospace was selected to build the prototype. A C-17 demonstration is planned later this year. This is quantum sensing, not quantum computing — the part of the field that is already flying.
