We’ve seen Facebook take a few big steps over the past couple of years to bring the internet to places across the globe that still don’t have reliable access to it. Most of its efforts have revolved around collaborations with local carriers and free Wi-Fi providers but it has also been working on an ambitious project of beaming down connectivity using solar powered drones. Aquila, Facebook’s first internet drone, is now reportedly being investigated for a structural failure by the NTSB.
Aquila took to the skies earlier this year in the first of many test flights. Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the initial test a success.
Facebook’s internet drone is based on a “flying wing” design that has a massive 40 meter span which is meant to keep the drone airborne at very high altitudes. The drone happens to be very light as it’s made almost entirely out of carbon fiber. It has been designed this way to ensure that it can stay up in the air for months at a time and beam down connectivity to the most remote regions of this planet.
Bloomberg’s report mentions a previously undisclosed investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board which reveals that the drone met an accident when it was coming in to land on June 28th. It apparently suffered a “structural failure.”
A spokesman for the NTSB told the scribe that the agency has classified the failure as an accident which means that there was substantial damage to the drone. It was also confirmed that there was no damage on the ground as a result of this accident. The NTSB is yet to release its preliminary findings or detail the extent of damage caused to the drone.