Facebook Aquila drone was announced at the F8 conference in March 2015, and although flights have happened on smaller models of the drone this is the first test of the full-sized version. Its main purpose, the company said, is to provide internet to the 4 billion people in the world that don’t have access.
Facebook has flown its full-sized solar-powered airplane for the first time, after months of anticipation. The successful test flight and ended up remaining in the sky for 90 minutes,
The drone has a wingspan comparable to a Boeing 737 and the finished product will need to fly at altitudes of between 60,000 to 90,000 for a period of three months.
“Aquila is a solar-powered airplane that can be used to bring affordable internet to hundreds of millions of people in the hardest-to-reach places. When complete, Aquila will be able to circle a region up to 60 miles in diameter, beaming connectivity down from an altitude of more than 60,000 feet using laser communications and millimeter wave systems,” the company said in a newsroom blog.
“Internet access can offer life-changing opportunities and experiences to all of us, but there are still 4 billion people without it. That’s 60% of the global population. As many as 1.6 billion of those unconnected people live in remote locations with no access to mobile broadband networks, where implementing existing network technologies is so challenging and costly that it will take years to bring everyone affordable access. As part of our commitment to Internet.org, we formed the Facebook Connectivity Lab to build new technologies — including aircraft, satellites, and wireless communications systems — to help solve this problem more quickly.
Today Connectivity Lab announced a big milestone in this work: the first full-scale test flight of Aquila, our high-altitude unmanned aircraft. Aquila is a solar-powered airplane that can be used to bring affordable internet to hundreds of millions of people in the hardest-to-reach places. When complete, Aquila will be able to circle a region up to 60 miles in diameter, beaming connectivity down from an altitude of more than 60,000 feet using laser communications and millimeter wave systems. Aquila is designed to be hyper efficient, so it can fly for up to three months at a time. 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.
We’re encouraged by this first successful flight, but we have a lot of work ahead of us. 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 currently stands at two weeks. This will require significant advancements in science and engineering to achieve. 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.”
http://www.phoenixnewsonline.com/2016/07/22/facebook-aquila-drone-makes-first-flight/

Tech at its best. .awesome!!!

that small boy get sense o!

Good one!!

The same way I was surprised when I saw the outcome of "Let Build 2016 by Microsoft"

Those inventions are so great, accommodated and highly appreciated.

To access Wikipedia, Nairaland and WikiHow for free is an autodidacts dream.

WoW