Facebook To Start Testing Their Aquila Solar Powered Drone

Last year, Facebook started teasing the world with its plans of building a little plane that would deliver internet to the masses. Now, the big F is preparing to test their Aquila solar powered drone.

The Aquila solar powered drone is a 140-foot self driving plane that will deliver internet, for free, from altitudes of 60,000 to 90,000 feet.

More than 10 percent of the world’s population doesn’t have the infrastructure required to use basic internet, and Facebook’s plan is to solve this issue.

The drone, or UAV, however you want to put it, has a wingspan similar to the well known Boeing 737, and it weighs just about 880 pounds.

It will be able to patrol a selected area for 90 days, relying solely on energy from the Sun. But this doesn’t mean that it isn’t costly. Facebook employs balloons to get the Aquila solar powered drone to a specific altitude, and then it sets it loose.

Aquila will be able to fly above commercial airliners, and thunderstorms, and at night, to conserve energy, it will drop at 60,000 feet.

Aquila drones will be able to fly in a circle in a radius of 3 kilometers, and it will be able to offer free internet within a 50 kilometer range.

It’s a little bit confusing at the moment how the Federal Aviation Administration will control this kind of air traffic.

The Aquila solar powered drone is part of Facebook’s plan of connecting the world. Through their internet.org, the company has brought free basic internet service to over a billion users, in 17 countries across the world.

Their main goal is to bring the internet to underdeveloped countries that don’t have the infrastructure required e.g fiber optic cables, microwave repeaters and cell towers.

Facebook wants to start testing their UAV later this year, but we don’t know a precise date.

Facebook has built a prototype, and has tested it in a plant in the UK, but the company hasn’t disclosed any information.

Also part of the internet.org connect-the-world project, Facebook is developing an improved way of transmitting data. They managed to go up to 10 Gbps, which, when comparing to the previous system that was capable of transmitting at 1 Gbps, is ten times faster.

FB CEO Mark Zuckerberg is aware that offering free internet to people in underdeveloped countries will also be profitable for Facebook, but he notes that this isn’t profit-driven, and it’s mainly inclined on helping developing countries, and their economies.

When you have access to the world’s knowledge only at a mouse click’s distance, you can grow better and faster.

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Karen Jackson

Karen Jackson has always been passionate about technology. All the way through high-school she immersed herself in computers and web-design. Her ambitious nature helped her become a pro in Adobe Photoshop only by watching online videos and working with the program herself. This is also the program that she mostly uses in the creation of websites at her work-place. Technological innovation and gadgets that push the boundaries of what we are comfortable with have always fascinated her, so expect to see some weird gadget reviews coming from her.