Bringing Hybrid Quantum-Classical Computing to Industry: EuroQSS and the Airbus Aircraft Production Case

Quantum computing (QC) has strong potential to address industry-relevant optimization problems, but practical advantage will only be achieved when quantum systems can easily be integrated with classical computing in hybrid workflows.

In this talk, we present a concrete industrial use case from Airbus, focusing on optimization challenges in aircraft production. The setup of complex industrial processes involves tightly coupled design, production, and operations steps, leading to large mixed discrete–continuous optimization spaces that quickly exceed the capabilities of classical computing alone. We show that viable solutions require decomposing such problems into quantum-relevant components while retaining other steps on classical hardware, resulting in interleaved hybrid quantum–classical workflows.

To realize these workflows efficiently, all computational steps—including transitions between classical and quantum processing—must be supported by suitable software abstractions, runtime environments, and scheduling mechanisms. Addressing these challenges, the new Horizon Europe project EuroQSS, led by Fraunhofer IKS, is building an interoperable, scalable, and futureproof European quantum software stack designed explicitly for such hybrid quantum–classical workflows. EuroQSS builds on emerging national software stacks such as the Munich Quantum Software Stack and the French myQLM, extending them towards quantum error correction, efficient scheduling routines, and user abstractions.

EuroQSS enables quantum hardware agnostic programming through open interfaces at all layers. We present EuroQSS and demonstrate, using the Airbus aircraft production example, how its software stack enables efficient hybrid quantum–classical workflows for industrial optimization problems.