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FACEBOOK COMPLETED ITS first successful flight of a solar-powered drone this week that could provide worldwide internet access.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg and his team of engineers are developing a drone called Aquila which could provide internet access to 4 billion people who are currently unconnected.
“When Aquila is ready, it will be a fleet of solar-powered planes that will beam internet connectivity across the world,” Zuckerburg wrote on Facebook.
Weighing about 1,000 lbs, the unmanned drone is powered by four electric engines.
It flew for one hour and 46 minutes over a desert landscape and landed successfully near Yuma, Arizona on 29 June.
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/videos/10103841456831511/
The launch speed of the drone was calculated at 27 mph.
The drone climbed at 180 feet per minute — to 3,000 feet. When flying upwards, Facebook said it moved at 10-15 mph over the ground.
Facebook’s director of aeronautical platforms Martin Luis Gomez said:
“We designed Aquila this way because it is meant to stay in the same area for long periods of time to supply internet access. Aquila is solar-powered and extremely power-efficient, running on the power equivalent of three blow dryers.”
The Aquila team watched the flight from a nearby engineering station through a video stream which displayed the view from their nearby helicopter.
Not without difficulties
It’s been a long journey to get the drone – with a wingspan wider than that of a Boeing 737 – to fly a successful flight.
The American National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched an investigation into an accident during the drone’s first flight on 28 June 2016.
At the time, Zuckerburg announced on Facebook that the flight had been successful.
“Our original mission was to fly Aquila for 30 minutes, but things went so well that we decided to keep the plane up for 96 minutes,” he said.
“We gathered lots of data about our models and the aircraft structure – and after two years of development, it was emotional to see Aquila actually get off the ground.”
However, it was then revealed that a “structural failure”, which saw the drone crash, resulted in an NTSB investigation, according to a report seen by Bloomberg News.
The accident was the last hiccup to date in Facebook’s plans to provide wireless connectivity to across the world.
Gomez said: ”Aquila’s second flight took into account the lessons we learned from our first flight. In advance of the second flight, we incorporate a number of modifications to Aquila.”
These changes included:
“The improvements we implemented based on Aquila’s performance during its first test flight made a significant difference in this flight,” Gomez said.
Zuckerburg admitted that while the flight was successful, it’s not ready for full-use yet.
“No one has ever built an unmanned airplane that will fly for months at a time, so we need to tune in every detail to get this right,” he said.
When Aquila is ready, it will be a fleet of solar-powered planes that will beam internet connectivity across the world.
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I’d imagine burglars account for 5/5 burglaries
@David Keohane: secure doors and windows account for 4 out of 5.. what I take from this is leave your doors and windows unsecured 80% less chance of being robbed.
@David Keohane: I’d say difficult upbringings account for a fair chunk of the total.
@David Keohane: of course they do but why make it easier. This is not victim blaming of that’s what your suggesting. This lads would go door to door looking for unlocked houses and cars. If locked they move on waiting for the inevitable unlocked one. The stats may suggest that if people took advise and locked up and were more vigilant. Then the total numbers should lower.
@Seaniecp: Well it is victim blaming by definition although you just draw the dots and don’t join them and nobody suggested that until you mentioned it yourself.
@Sean: ah l could just sense where this article might go. It’s where the previous article on this went. It would be great if you could leave your door open and not be burgled but unfortunately that’s not the case. Be even better if people could take advice and not be offended by it (not saying the original poster was, his post may have been for humour)
5/5 burglaries are by skum most likely already on a suspended sentence.
Wonder what percentage are out on bail?
Wow slow news day?? 1 in 5 journal articles account for actual reporting, I say!
“Unsecured doors and windows saved 1 in 5 burglary victims from having doors or windows busted as well as having their gear nicked”.
Lockdown will reduce it a wee bit….
And what was wrong with all that?
They left the feckin window wide open.
For jaysus sake lads we are blue in the face from telling ye to close the feckin windows!!! You might as well have left the front door open!! Ye might as well have invited them in for tea.
Come crying then to us.
Spilt milk.
O spilt milk
@Peter O Donoghue:
Shure you can’t be doing dat.
No, lazy degenerates account of 100% of burglaries!!!!
A lock only keeps out an honest man
There must be a percentage where the doors and windows are secured but not very secure. Well that parts obvious since they were broken into. But you get top quality security doors and windows like Rationel or Fairco make with six point locking and laminated glass and remember to lock them and you’ve narrowed your odds significantly. Just don’t lose your keys or you’ll be sleeping in the garage.
If there is one thing In the world I hate is an unlocked foot locker
Is that all?
have your say