Facebook’s Internet Drone Flies

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Facebook’s new high-altitude drone flew for the first time and its mission, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is nothing short of changing the world. But first the frail high-altitude solar electric aircraft had to get off the ground. Zuckerberg was in Yuma, Arizona, on June 28 when Aquila, riding a dolly down the runway, was cut free by some pyrotechnic straps and climbed to 2,150 feet. “It was this incredibly emotional moment for everyone on the team who’s poured their lives into this for two years,” Zuckerberg told The Verge. The plan is for fleets of the ancestors of Aquila to bring really high-speed internet to every corner of the world. It’s as ambitious as it is audacious but it’s also essential, Zuckerberg said.

“I just felt this is such an important milestone for the company, and for connecting the world, that I have to be there,” Zuckerberg said. The idea is that thousands of relatively inexpensive drones will act as repeaters for the internet and beam AVweb, along with a lot of other stuff, to anyone who wants it for low cost. Zuckerberg said the information and education possibilities will lift billions of people out of poverty and enable the distribution of Facebook’s artificial intelligence and virtual reality products. As for the drone, it’s designed to cruise on sun power at about 70,000 feet and operate as a flying router, using laser signals to get the bandwidth to the ground, and it seems likely that a company with Facebook’s resources will be able to make it work.

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