Facebook Completes First Test Flight Of Its Giant Aquila Internet Drone

The company’s Connectivity Lab has reached a major milestone in this ambition with the first full-scale test flight of Aquila, an unmanned solar-powered airplane that can be used to bring affordable internet to hundreds of millions of people in the hardest-to-reach places. But as Fred Katayama reports, some developing countries have concerns.

Facebook, like Google, has been studying a range of Internet-delivery technologies including balloons, high-altitude drones and satellites.

Aquila’s first flight is part of Facebook’s overall commitment in overcoming the remaining barriers to universal connectivity.

The new drones, which can fly up to 90,000 foot high – nearly triple that of a standard aircraft – launched their maiden voyage on Thursday after being produced by specialist firm Ascenta, based in a warehouse in Bridgwater.

The drone is meant to be one of a fleet of drones flying at 60,000 feet for months at a time and beaming the Internet to remote parts of the world. – Jonathan Weber, Reuters Global Tech Editor.

The announcement is noteworthy because Facebook has developed the solar-powered Aquila drone with the objective of reaching Internet access to the hitherto-unconnected remote areas of the world. “We’re encouraged by this first successful flight, but we have a lot of work ahead of us”.

The body of the Aquila drone is made up of lightweight carbon fiber, and so despite its large size, it weighs in at only around 1000 pounds (453.6kg). In a separate test, Facebook engineers shared that the flight test, while planned for 30 minutes, lasted 96 minutes, while the team collected valuable data on aspects of the craft’s performance, including its radios, aerodynamic handling, batteries, motors and structural viability.

“We’re always looking for ways to trim this down and make our systems more efficient”, said Zuckerberg. In addition to making Aquila financially sustainable-by reducing how much it costs to operate and maintain-Facebook will have to convince network operators and other partners to help them get the broadband links they need.

Facebook, which has more than 1.6 billion users, has invested billions of dollars in getting more people online, both through an initiative called internet.org – which offers a pared-down version of the Internet to poor areas.

“The aircraft has the wingspan of an airliner, but at cruising speed it will consume only 5,000 watts – the same amount as three hair dryers, or a high-end microwave. It is designing the boomerang-shaped aircraft to beam-connectivity down to billions of people who don’t now have access to the internet”.

“Over the next year we’re going to keep testing Aquila – flying higher and longer, and adding more planes and payloads”.