Facebook has been working on an ambitious program to bring internet connectivity to the over 4 billion people across the globe who are still without access. The company is going to use drones for this purpose. Aquila, Facebook’s internet drone, has been in testing for quite some time now. The company has now confirmed that its Aquila drone has completed test flights.
Facebook’s solar-powered Aquila drone completed its test flight successfully in Arizona. An earlier attempt didn’t go off so smoothly as the drone ended up crashing when landing.
The second test flight has been more successful since the drone was carrying a greater number of sensors. It also had new spoilers and a horizontal propeller stopping system to improve its landing abilities. The drone flew for a total time of one hour and 46 minutes. It reached a maximum height of 3,000ft.
“The improvements we implemented based on Aquila’s performance during its first test flight made a significant difference in this flight,” said Martin Luis Gomez, Facebook’s director of aeronautical platforms.
The ultimate aim is to have countless drones like Aquila up in the air for months at a time to beam down internet connectivity to billions of people across the globe that haven’t got internet access as yet.
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously revealed that when this drone is ready, it’s actually going to be an entire fleet of solar-powered drones that will beam internet connectivity across the globe.