The team of onboard physicists and aeronautical engineers was responsible for the quantum navigation system and the onboard quantum clock, which was about the size of a record player.
The first few tests of the quantum navigation device did not work because vibrations from the aircraft’s engines and many other noise-inducing factors prevented the process from working properly.
However, after stripping the system down to its bare bones and rebuilding it to be more robust, the system worked as expected.
Quantum navigation works by using an array of lasers to cool a cloud of rubidium atoms to temperatures above absolute zero (-273°C). 100 million atoms, weighing just one billionth of a gram, have no energy and no longer behave like normal particles. At such low temperatures, clouds are not solid, liquid, or gas, but instead enter a different state of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate.
This unusual material behaves like both waves and particles, as the cold brings the quantum properties of atoms to the fore.
The laser splits the cloud of atoms, and each entity moves independently before being recombined. How they interact can be analyzed to reveal speed, distance, and location.
Bose-Einstein condensate is the fifth state of matter, first theorized 100 years ago and first created in a laboratory in the 90s.
Dr Keshav Thirumalai, head of inertia portfolio at Inflexion, told the Telegraph from 10,000ft above Wiltshire: “Based on that interference pattern, we can infer the location of the aircraft.
“It’s a great accomplishment to have all of this working this far,” he added.
The next step is to combine working quantum mechanisms with data from the plane itself to generate navigable information.
Henry White, Principal Engineer (Sensing) at BAE Systems, part of the consortium that developed the technology, said: It is equipped with functions and can be used as standard equipment during navigation.
“This early-stage investment helps cement the UK’s position as a leader in quantum technology, and we achieved a world first with this flight demonstration.”