In 1903, the Wright brothers achieved the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft, a feat that marked the dawn of the aerospace era. However, the journey from those early biplanes to today's supersonic jets and spacecraft required countless hours of complex mathematical calculations, wind tunnel testing, and painstaking design iterations. Advancements in materials science, propulsion systems, and aerodynamics were often incremental and laborious, relying on costly, time-consuming physical experimentation and trial-and-error.
Today, the landscape of aerospace innovation is undergoing a radical transformation. SandboxAQ's Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) are replacing time-consuming physical testing with AI-driven simulations, grounded in the fundamental laws of physics, chemistry, and mathematics. LQMs can rapidly test and optimize countless design variations, material combinations, and operational scenarios, enabling aerospace engineers to achieve breakthroughs in efficiency, safety, and performance that were once deemed impossible.
While Large Language Models (LLMs) have captured attention for their ability to generate human-like text, their applications in the aerospace sector are limited to customer support, marketing content creation, and other applications linked with language and images. LQMs, on the other hand, are purpose-built to process scientific equations and real-world data, providing predictive capabilities that drive tangible advancements in aerospace design, manufacturing, and operations. Unlike traditional simulation methods such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA), LQMs can handle vast amounts of data, perform intricate calculations, and uncover complex relationships between variables with greater speed and efficiency. This makes them ideal for applications in materials science, aerodynamics, propulsion, and structural analysis.
Advanced materials are the cornerstone of modern aerospace engineering, where weight, resilience, and resistance critically influence an aircraft's performance. Developing lighter, stronger, more flexible and heat-resistant materials is essential for improving fuel efficiency, reducing weight, and enabling hypersonic flight.
Reducing an aircraft's weight has a significant impact on fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions. For instance, decreasing an aircraft's weight by just one kilogram can lead to a reduction of approximately 25 tons of CO₂ emissions over the aircraft's operational lifespan. This substantial effect underscores the importance of developing advanced materials that are lighter yet stronger, enhancing both fuel efficiency and environmental sustainability in aerospace engineering.
Traditionally, discovering and testing new materials has been a slow and costly process limited by our existing knowledge of metallurgy, chemistry, and physics. With today’s powerful computers, LLMs could be used to accelerate ideation on potential new materials, but the insights are merely extracted from existing research and discoveries. In order to discover innovative aerospace materials of the future, AI needs to explore the vast entirety of the chemical space to develop new compounds and alloys that were previously unknown.
Trained on physics, chemistry and quantum equations governing molecular interactions, LQMs can simulate the behavior of millions of material compositions at the atomic level, rapidly identifying those with optimal properties and performance attributes for specific aerospace applications. This accelerates the development of advanced composites and alloys, potentially leading to aircraft and spacecraft that are lighter, faster, more durable and fuel efficient.
Many leading companies in other industries are leveraging SandboxAQ’s cutting-edge AQChemSim technologies to streamline their material R&D processes, and are starting to see the fruits of their investment. For example, the U.S. Army is using LQMs to develop lighter, stronger metal alloys for its armored vehicles that will improve both fuel efficiency and warfighter protection. The aerospace industry could be the next major industry ripe for this innovation.
Precise navigation and control are essential for safe and efficient aerospace operations. However, over the past few years the aviation industry has experienced a concerning escalation in GPS denial, jamming and spoofing, compromising the primary satellite-based navigation system that’s ubiquitous in every modern aircraft. To grasp the scale of the problem, GPS interference is impacting an average of 1,000 flights per day, according to experts tracking data from GPSwise. A 2024 report from Ops Group reported that 70% of more than 2,000 commercial flight captains surveyed rated GPS spoofing as a very high or extreme safety concern. The operational impact of false GPS data remaining even after spoofing exposure, causes persistent navigational errors. Spoofing incidents contribute to increased fuel consumption, delays, and repair costs.
LQMs can address this issue as well, providing highly accurate and reliable positioning data and resilient navigation capabilities even in GPS-denied environments. SandboxAQ’s AQNav is one of the leading innovations in this sector. Leveraging proprietary LQM algorithms and powerful quantum magnetometers, AQNav uses Earth’s crustal magnetic field as a roadmap, comparing its distinct magnetic ‘fingerprint’ against known magnetic maps to enable accurate navigation. To date, AQNav has logged more than 200 sorties and 450 flight-hours across various aircraft types with partners such as the U.S. Air Force (USAF), Boeing, Acubed (the Silicon Valley innovation arm of Airbus), and other U.S.-allied governments.
Originally designed to supplement existing inertial, visual and satellite-based navigation systems, AQNav demonstrated its capability as a primary navigation source during a USAF flight test last year. In 2025, a nationwide test covering 44,000 km showed AQNav maintained RNP 1 (i.e., the aviation industry’s Required Navigation Performance, with accuracy to within 1 nautical mile) 95% of flight time and RNP 0.3 (the precision required for aircraft landings) an unprecedented 64% of flight time – all without GPS.
Although still years away from gaining approval for widespread military and commercial use, AQNav has the potential to revolutionize the aviation industry, with future applications for land, sea, underwater, subterranean, and autonomous vehicle navigation.
With aerospace innovation evolving faster than a rocketship, embracing LQM technology is essential for maintaining a competitive edge. To stay ahead, aerospace companies should actively explore pilot programs, invest in LQM-driven R&D, and establish partnerships to leverage this transformative technology. Companies that leverage these powerful AI models will be better equipped to accelerate R&D cycles and bring innovations to market faster, optimize designs for improved performance, efficiency, and safety, enhance decision-making with data-driven, physics-based insights, and reduce reliance on costly and time-consuming physical testing. LQMs are already delivering unprecedented breakthroughs and value-creation in industries such as biopharma, chemicals, energy and more – it’s time for the aerospace industry to get on board.
Please contact us today if you are interested in partnering with us in deploying AQNav for your organization.
