The company said it would test the aircraft in the US later in 2015.
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Facebook’s Aquila aircraft is designed to transmit basic Internet…
Aquila is Facebook’s high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft…
The video shows how Facebook has brought together scientists from all walks of like to build the 42 metre wingspan drones. It will use lasers to send Internet signals to stations on the ground.
CNN Money reports that the solar-powered drone looks like a giant boomerang.
“Building big planes and selling them is not core to our mission of connecting people”, said Jay Parikh, a VP of engineering.
“There’s a lot of moving parts here that have to work in concert”, said Mr Maguire, during a press briefing at the company’s headquarters.
Parikh said Facebook is not planning to sell the drones but will use them to expand Internet access, reports Reuters.
The network will operate similarly to Google’s Project Loon. Microsoft is also financing a project that envisages transmitting internet signals over unused television airwaves.
“This effort is important because 10 percent of the world’s population lives in areas without existing internet infrastructure” said Zuckerberg. Facebook has already tested a version of Aquila in the UK, but this was not a full-scale machine. Helium balloons would help it into the air.
Aquila is Facebook’s solar-powered, unmanned aircraft designed to beam down Internet to the developing world from 90,000 feet in the sky. But at night, in order to conserve power, they’ll float down to about 60,000 feet, going back up again the following day.
Meanwhile, Facebook’s laser communications team in California achieved a breakthrough in its laser beaming technology, through which it can deliver data at a rate of tens of Gb per second. Laser tech delivers internet more than 10 times faster than traditional devices. Though current regulations require one pilot on the ground for each drone, Facebook hopes to design the Aquila so it can fly without a dedicated pilot. The drone is now ready for the testing stage, which would most likely be carried out in the United States.
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“Our goal is to accelerate the development of a new set of technologies that can drastically change the economics of deploying internet infrastructure”, wrote Parikh in a blog post.
