Facebook’s solar-powered drone Aquila has successfully landed

11/07/17 | Tags: Business, Social, Innovations

Facebook’s drone Aquila, which will beam internet from the sky, has successfully completed its first test flight.       

The unmanned aircraft has the wingspan greater than the Boeing 737, while its weight is only about third of an electric car. It is covered by solar panels providing enough energy to stay up in the sky even for 3 months. The drone’s first flight lasted 96 min, which is 3 time longer than planned.

Facebook’s plan is to launch the drone into the sky with the use of big balloon filled with helium. Jay Parikh, Facebook vice president of infrastructure engineering explains that the plane will stay between 60,000 to 90,000 feet altitude, where it is above the air traffic and free from storms.

Parikh claims that 10% of world population living in rural areas has no possibility to access the web. Aquila task will be delivering Wi-Fi  connection, especially to developing nations.  

Source: time.com