First flight for full scale Facebook internet drone

Google is working to expand the Internet with its own flying drones and high-altitude balloons, Facebook is fashioning all sorts of contraptions to spread online access far and wide, including new wireless antennas, lasers, and satellites. In the process, both companies are furthering their own ends. If they expand the Internet’s reach, they expand the reach of Google and Facebook.

By Facebook’s estimates, about 1.6 billion people live in areas that don’t offer mobile broadband.

Aquila is the flying drone Zuckerberg and company are designing to provide Internet access in remote parts of the world. It’s made of carbon fiber, and it tops the wingspan of a 737.

Facebook’s Aquila airplanes will communicate via space optics—aka lasers. FACEBOOK

SOURCE – Wired