Now, Schwartz told an audience at the Paris Air Show on Tuesday (17 June), we are entering the second quantum revolution. Companies can manipulate the position of single atoms, and control how they interact with their neighbours. In this way, they create quantum devices and quantum systems – and these could have revolutionary consequences for aeronautics, Schwartz and other panel members said.
Classical computers use bits with value of either one or zero, explained Isabell Grardet, vice-president of research and technology for Airbus in Germany. Those bits are implemented by transistors – lots and lots of them.
“The need for high-performance computing is increasing in industries, not only in the aviation industry,” she said. “Hardware development is challenged at the same time, because these transistors… are already in a nano-scale engine, there are physical limits in order to further shrink them down. So this is a reason why we're looking for more disruptive technologies, which can complement this classical computing in future.”
Quantum computing could be that disruptive technology. It offers a “completely new way” of computing, Grardet said. Unlike the ‘light switch’ style binary of classical computing, quantum bits (qubits) enable blends of one and zero, like a dimmer switch.
Computers using qubits can be hugely powerful thanks to the quantum property of entanglement. “When you have several qubits, they are intrinsically connected to each other – so if you move one qubit, all the others move as well,” Grardet said. “This makes a quantum computer so powerful. And just as an example, if you have a quantum computer with 300 qubits, the solution space is larger than the atoms of the universe. So really, really powerful.”
While it is still very early days for the technology, Airbus sees opportunities for quantum computing to solve two of its most complex challenges across its wide portfolio.
The first is microscopic simulations, Grardet said. “We have, for the first time, simulated the chemical reaction of a fuel cell in order to give it as a tool to engineers, to further optimise the performance of new energy systems.”
Using quantum computers to solve non-linear differential equations will also be “a great asset”, she continued, allowing engineers to simulate aerodynamic performance on a miniature scale. Non-destructive testing of components could also benefit from increased accuracy and a reduction in drift.
“We have to be realistic,” Grardet cautioned. “We are still at a very early stage… but if everything that we have in mind as a global ecosystem will come true, quantum computing can really be one of the biggest game changers for the century, when you look at it from a technology perspective.”
The panel in the innovation-focused Paris Air Lab also featured Daniel Dolfi, head of physics at Thales Research and Technology in France. Navigation is another area that could benefit, he said, with alternative systems capable of providing accurate location data when GPS is not available.
Electromagnetic sensing is the other main domain where it can be useful, he continued. “We can use quantum technology in order to enhance the capabilities, the performance of any electromagnetic sensor – it can be radar, it can be an electronic warfare system,” he said. “In the case of a radio frequency sensor, it's a question of improving the sensitivity, the frequency, coverage, the dynamic range.”
Aerospace companies are used to long development times, Grardet and Dolfi said – and it will be some time before they can make the most of the quantum opportunity. Early engagement is needed to succeed, however, so they said more engineers need quantum expertise.
“In general there are not enough engineers, and there are not enough engineers sufficiently familiar with quantum technology,” Dolfi said. “That's something we have to work on in order to provide the necessary number of engineers, and to train them through research programmes.”
Airbus is also collaborating with other industries as it approaches a “hybrid future” making the most of classical and quantum computing, Grardet said, including a quantum computing challenge with BMW. “We have the same challenges and we are not competitors,” she said. “We have distributed, to the community, the challenges we see around the most complex topics we have.”
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