Boeing Announces VARIANT Project to Advance Safe Integration of Electric and Autonomous Aircraft into Urban Airspace
Madrid, Spain, April 16, 2026 – Boeing in Spain today announced the VARIANT project (Validation of AiRspace Integration Applications and New Technologies), a strategic industrial research initiative to enable the safe, efficient, and scalable integration of emerging electric and autonomous aircraft into existing and future airspace. Led by Boeing Aerospace Spain, the consortium includes ANZEN Engineering, AI Methods, and QCentroid Labs, with subcontractors Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), ENAIRE, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), and CRIDA.
The project is partially funded by the Subdirectorate-General for Technological Innovation of the Madrid Regional Government under a public tender from the Regional Ministry of Education.
VARIANT focuses on Innovative Air Mobility (IAM), including eVTOLs operating at low altitudes in urban and suburban environments, and will validate operational concepts, ground systems, and technologies through simulation, laboratory testing, and high-fidelity simulation trials.
“The VARIANT program represents a critical step in preparing our airspace for the future of mobility,” said Eduardo Carrillo de Albornoz, Managing Director, Boeing Engineering and Technology Innovation Europe. “By validating aircraft and ground-based systems together, we will help ensure electric and autonomous operations are integrated safely and efficiently, delivering value to communities and enabling new modes of transportation.”
VARIANT aims to develop new Operational Procedures and Automated Air Traffic Management Services for vertiport operations. “We are pleased to bring ANZEN Engineering’s expertise in safety, security, and systems engineering to the VARIANT consortium,” said Pablo de la Cruz, CEO of ANZEN Engineering. “The project is a strong opportunity to validate the requirements, interfaces, and assurance frameworks needed to integrate vertiport and IAM operations into the existing airspace system with the rigor required for future certifiable services.”
“Integrating electric and autonomous aircraft into shared urban airspace is, at its core, a massive computational challenge. QCentroid brings a systematic framework to evaluate where quantum and hybrid computing can meaningfully enhance air traffic management, complementing the AI and safety engineering expertise of our partners. VARIANT gives us the collaborative, safety-focused environment to generate and validate that evidence with the rigor this industry demands,” said Carlos Kuchkovsky, CEO of QCentroid.
“We are excited to participate in the VARIANT project and contribute with our expertise in AI-driven weather intelligence,” said Aniel Jardines, AI Methods CEO. “The goal for us in this project is to deliver high-resolution, real-time forecasts supporting safe and efficient IAM and U-space operations.”
VARIANT will help advance ground-based traffic surveillance, micro-weather, vertiport resource management, and GNSS spoofing detection services. These align with the strategic objective of SkyGrid, a Boeing subsidiary focused on digital airspace management, developing ground-based digital traffic management capabilities that enable autonomous aerial operations in complex urban and suburban airspace. “Safe autonomous aircraft operations depend on reliable situational awareness, resilient positioning and timing, and intelligent aerodrome management and integration,” said Jia Xu, CEO of SkyGrid. “VARIANT accelerates the development and validation of these ground-based services for high-density, low-altitude environments.”
The Boeing Company: As one of the world’s leading aerospace companies, Boeing develops, manufactures, and supports commercial airplanes, defense products, and space systems for customers in more than 150 countries. As one of the leading exporters of manufactured goods from the United States, the company benefits from the talent of an international supplier base to foster economic opportunity, sustainability, and community impact. Boeing’s diverse team is committed to innovation for the future, to leading in sustainability, and to nurturing a culture grounded in the company’s core values: safety, quality, and integrity. Boeing’s presence in Spain dates back more than 90 years, during which it has served the needs of its commercial airline customers and maintained long-standing collaboration with the Spanish aerospace sector. It has also supplied aircraft, helicopters, and military systems to the Spanish Armed Forces for many years. Boeing’s European E&TI center (Boeing Engineering and Technology Innovation–Europe), headquartered in Madrid, generates innovative ideas to meet Boeing’s and its customers’ needs in areas such as digital engineering, avionics systems, data-driven airline services, solutions for integrating autonomous systems into shared airspace, materials, and manufacturing technologies. www.boeing.es
ANZEN Engineering is a high-value engineering company specializing in the aerospace and defense sectors. ANZEN is the reference company for supporting the development and certification of critical systems, providing solutions in systems engineering, safety, reliability, airworthiness, ILS, embedded cybersecurity and MBSE. It collaborates on the industry’s major programs, delivering innovative digital engineering solutions complemented by proprietary software technology. With a presence in Spain, Switzerland, Germany and the United States, ANZEN operates globally. www.anzenengineering.com
QCentroid is an enterprise QuantumOps platform for orchestrating, benchmarking, and integrating hybrid computational workflows across CPUs, GPUs, and multiple quantum backends. Within the VARIANT project, QCentroid provides the infrastructure layer that enables structured experimentation, validation, and traceability of advanced computational models supporting airspace integration and operational decision-making. Headquartered in Spain, QCentroid allows organizations to design, execute, and compare complex workflows in controlled and auditable environments, supporting the transition from simulation to real-world validation. Its AI Copilot layer accelerates the development of use cases from initial definition to execution-ready workflows. QCentroid works with enterprises, research institutions, and ecosystem partners to bridge the gap between emerging technologies and their safe, scalable deployment in industrial and mission-critical environments. www.qcentroid.xyz
AI Methods is a Spain-based deep tech company specializing in artificial intelligence solutions for advanced weather prediction in the aviation industry. Founded as a spin-off from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, the company combines cutting-edge research in machine learning, meteorology, and air traffic management to tackle one of aviation’s most complex operational challenges: anticipating high-impact weather events with greater accuracy and lead time. By leveraging large-scale historical and real-time meteorological data, AI Methods develops AI-powered models capable of transforming raw weather data into actionable operational intelligence, enabling air traffic management stakeholders to shift from reactive responses to proactive, strategic decision-making. Through its solutions, AI Methods helps improve safety, reduce delays, and optimize airspace efficiency, supporting a more resilient and sustainable aviation ecosystem. https://www.aimethods.com/
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