Facebook announced the first, full – scale test flight of its solar-powered craft, Aquila on Thursday. It is expected to provide internet to almost four billion people worldwide including those living in the remote regions. The flight took place in Yuma region of Arizona and while, Facebook’s original mission was to fly Aquila for 30 minutes however, the plane was kept up till over 90 minutes.
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg’s post read:
‘After two years of engineering, I’m proud to announce the successful first flight of Aquila – the solar-powered plane we designed to beam internet to remote parts of the world. On June 29th, we completed the first successful flight of Aquila – our solar-powered plane that will beam internet to remote parts of the world and eventually break the record for longest unmanned aircraft flight.’
The company is now working on making the aircraft more efficient.
‘Our goal is to have a fleet of Aquilas flying together at 60,000 feet, communicating with each other with lasers and staying aloft for months at a time – something that’s never been done before. Over the next year, we’re going to keep testing Aquila – flying higher and longer, and adding more planes and payloads. It’s all part of our mission to connect the world and help more of the 4 billion people who are not access all the opportunities of the internet,’ Mr. Zuckerberg added.
