SandboxAQ and Acubed (part of Airbus) have released a commercial prototype of its AI navigation prototype, as well as results from a five-month, nationwide project designed to test the accuracy of magnetic navigation (MagNav) technology AQNav, designed to address issues such as GPS denial, jamming, and spoofing.
In a statement, SandboxAQ explained that its tests were held to see if MagNav “could broadly meet commercial aircraft navigation requirements.” The tests showed that AQNav “exceeded the accuracy required for en route travel between airports, beating the accuracy of inertial navigation systems 100% of the time – without GPS.” These flights, the company said, “were designed to mirror authentic, real-world aviation conditions, using commercially available aircraft and randomized flight paths across diverse geophysical environments – vs. a purpose-built flying lab using cherry-picked conditions optimized for curated results.”
SandboxAQ stated that, during test flights exceeding two hours, “AQNav outperformed the Inertial Navigation System (INS) without GNSS 100% of the time.” Also, during “a one-hour flight over the challenging mountainous and forested terrain of California, AQNav achieved its best-observed accuracy of less than 74 meters, or roughly two-thirds the length of an American football field.”
Commenting on the announcement, Elijha Williams, AQNav’s technical engagement manager, said, “Our campaign was not about demonstrating proof of concept performance under ideal conditions, it was about proving AQNav’s viability under the noisy, messy, and unpredictable environments real pilots face every day.”
