Nearly one year ago, Facebook announced that its Aquila high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft was ready for flight testing, and the social network took the next step Thursday.
Global head of engineering and infrastructure Jay Parikh announced in a Newsroom post that the first full-scale test flight of Aquila was a success.
Aquila is one of the projects spearheaded by Facebook Connectivity Lab to further Internet.org?s mission of connecting everyone in the world to the Internet. Parikh described it as follows:
Aquila is a solar-powered airplane that can be used to bring affordable internet to hundreds of millions of people in the hardest-to-reach places. When complete, Aquila will be able to circle a region up to 60 miles in diameter, beaming connectivity down from an altitude of more than 60,000 feet using laser communications and millimeter wave systems. Aquila is designed to be hyper-efficient, so it can fly for up to three months at a time. The aircraft has the wingspan of an airliner, but at cruising speed it will consume only 5,000 watts?the same amount as three hair dryers, or a high-end microwave. He also detailed the steps leading up to Thursday?s successful test flight:
We?ve been flying a one-fifth scale version of Aquila for several months, but this was the first time we?ve flown the full-scale aircraft. This test flight was designed to verify our operational models and overall aircraft design. To prove out the full capacity of the design, we will push Aquil...