Facebook internet drone passes first full-scale test

Prior to Aquila, Facebook tested twenty-eight prototypes in the United States and Great Britain.

Mark Zuckerberg is one step closer to bringing internet connectivity to every corner of the planet.

Mark Zuckerberg posted a video of the flight on his Facebook page, saying it was result of “two years of engineering”.

The final adjustments are made to the drone before takeoff. People assumed that Zuckerberg would donate billions of dollars to the cause, but what no one expected was an internet drone. That’s 60% of the global population.

Facebook’s mission is to connect the world and with their growing team of aerospace, optical physics, RF communications and other world experts, and existing relationships with the technology community, telcos, governments, and communities that use Facebook, the company is uniquely positioned to do this work. That acquisition saw Andy Cox, Ascenta’s owner remain a part of the entire project, and is in fact the engineer running Project Aquila.

Facebook really wants to make sure everyone is on Facebook. And it all began with testing a laser drone over skies in the United Kingdom.

Aquila is huge. It has about the same wingspan as a Boeing 737, but despite its size, the company claims it runs on the equivalent power of about three hairdryers.

The following year, Facebook gave the drone its official name “Aquila”, and set goals to have the drones up for sale by the beginning of 2016.

The Facebook Connectivity Lab today announced the first full-scale test flight of Aquila, it’s high-altitude unmanned aircraft. Facebook estimates that using this technology, it will be able to bring affordable internet to hundreds of millions of people in the hardest-to-reach places. A successful test flight is judged as a third of that, so Facebook’s creation passed with flying colors.

“In fact, to reach our goal of being able to fly over a remote region and deliver connectivity for up to three months at time, we will need to break the world record for solar-powered unmanned flight, which now stands at two weeks”, he wrote in a blog post. Parikh continued that this meant his team could verify and check aerodynamics, batteries, control systems, and crew training.

For 96-mintues last month, the company flew a 140-foot wide unmanned drone over Yuma, Arizona. “Each test will help us learn and move faster toward our goal”, continued Parikh.