Quantum Computing Use Cases and Impacts for the Aerospace Industry

Quantum computers have the potential to be transformational for the aerospace industry. However, many aerospace organizations have not considered how this technology will impact their enterprises. Quantum computers are expected to have a greater effect than simply reduce computational runtimes. However, understanding their impact not only requires understanding what quantum computers are capable and incapable of, but can also require re-examining well-established workflows and questioning long-held assumptions. Quantum computation is currently in a stage of rapid maturation. In 2023, a quantum computer demonstrated a computation that goes beyond the capabilities of brute force classical computation. Building upon this, the hardware is rapidly progressing with qubit counts increasing and gate fidelities improving such that a quantum error corrected quantum computer has been announced to arrive in 2029. In parallel, algorithm advancements have decreased hardware requirements, in some cases by orders of magnitude. The result is that first applications are expected in the next few years, and aerospace organizations are advised to become quantum ready now. In the Spring of 2024, representatives from around the US aerospace industry gathered to identify how the expected power of quantum computers may impact the aerospace industry. The outcomes and recommendations from the workshop are summarized in this paper. The paper discusses the current status and trends in quantum computing, the four main application areas of quantum computing (quantum machine learning, search & optimization, chemical & material simulation, and linear algebra), illustrative use case examples from each area, and how these map to challenges in the aerospace industry.