Facebook recently launched its first test flight named Aquila drone which turned out to be completely successful, thus creating a buzz in the tech world.
The drone flew for 96 minutes continuously in an auto-flight over Yuma, Arizona. The think tank of Facebook strives to bring connectivity to billions of people residing in remote areas of the world.
Mark Zuckerberg recently informed regarding their pilot run after two years of development but yet major work needs to be done before it becomes operational.
As per Mark Zuckerberg’s post on Facebook:
“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 online access all the opportunities of the internet”
The mechanics
The boomerang shaped drone flew for 2,150 feet above sea level during the pilot run but Facebook expects it to fly between 60,000 and 90,000 feet for as long as 90 days consecutively.
It will be solar-powered and its lasers will send internet signals on the ground. The strength of its signals look significantly strong as it can send internet connections in any direction up to 30 miles. It will also free the users from internet speed issues with massive speed limit up to tens of thousands of gigabytes in a second.
Expected improvements in internet drone
Facebook management and engineering team is all set to bring major improvements in this 138 feet wide Aquila (as wide as a Boeing 747). The company will work on weight, power strength, and improve connectivity systems to transfer laser signals 10 times faster than the current capacity.
Despite being so wide, it weighs as low as 1,000 pounds. The brains behind the innovation are geared up to reduce its weight in order to prolong its flight time to months.
The company’s objective is to bring 4 billion people who lack internet access, under their internet drone umbrella as majority of their population lacks funds or are simply uneducated.
Many other companies, besides Facebook, are also trying to tap this avenue of own internet connectivity specially google which is making inroads in this field.
Source + image: money.cnn.com
