By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO (AA) – Facebook announced Thursday that it had successfully completed the first test flight of its Aquila unmanned drone, a solar-powered airplane with the wingspan of a Boeing 747 aircraft.
The successful test flight took place June 28 in Yuma, Arizona, near the California border.
The Aquila aircraft flew for 96 minutes, more than three times as long as the drone’s creators originally planned.
“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,” Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post published Thursday.
Facebook’s plan for Aquila is to make the Internet more accessible across the globe, especially in remote and impoverished areas.
Once in operation, it will beam lasers that transmit Internet to areas within a 97-kilometer (60-mile) radius of the drone. Small towers and dishes on the ground will be built to capture Aquila’s lasers and translate it into wireless Internet or a 4G network.
Approximately 4 billion people worldwide, or about 60 percent of the global population, do not have Internet access, according to Facebook.
Facebook, which started as a social media website but now has grander ambitions, has for years stated its commitment to make it easier for that group to gain online access.
The company faces a slew of challenges, however, before Aquila can officially roam the skies.
“To reach our goal of being able to fly over a remote region and deliver connectivity for up to three months at time, we will need to break the world record for solar-powered unmanned flight, which currently stands at two weeks,” wrote Jay Parikh, Facebook’s global head of engineering and infrastructure, in the company’s announcement about Aquila.
“This will require significant advancements in science and engineering to achieve. It will also require us to work closely with operators, governments and other partners to deploy these aircraft in the regions where they’ll be most effective,” he added.