The space race to broadcast internet service to planet earth is in full effect and the latest player in the game is Facebook who announced its successful launch of its Aquila aircraft.
Mark Zuckerberg shared a video on his Facebook page, stating that after two years of engineering, he is proud to announce the successful flight of Aquila, the solar powered airplane we designed to beam internet to remote parts of the world.
The first flight took place at June 28, 2016 Arizona. According to the video, the plane is designed to stay in the air for months at a time beaming internet signals to some of the most remote places in the world. The aircraft has a wing span as long as a commercial airliner which can fly with the power of roughly three blow dryers.
The flight has aircraft functions including aerodynamics, batteries onboard, certain control systems and training the troops for future flights. Social media CEO shared his goals for Aquila on a blog post which includes launching a fleet of Aquilas flying together at 60,000 feet, communicating with each other with lasers and staying for months at a time, something that’s never been done before.
https://youtu.be/eOez_Hk80TI
Facebook has been flying a one-fifth scale version of Aquila for several months, but this was the first time was the first time it has flown the full-scale aircraft.
While the successful test flight of Aquila is a major milestone, Facebook admitted it still has a lot of work ahead of it.
“This will require significant advancements in science and engineering to achieve,” said Parikh.
“It will also require us to work closely with operators, governments and other partners to deploy these aircraft in the regions where they’ll be most effective.”
