For some time, a dedicated team of Facebook has been working very hard to overcome the barriers - physical and bureaucratic - the distribution of the Internet around the world. The way chosen by Zuckerberg and his team to try to take the web to a public that today is offline, was betting on flying equipment powered by solar energy. So, after months of testing with smaller models, the company finally realized the first flight of its Aquila drone - who overcame much of the initial expectations.
The idea is that the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) help in the task of connecting 1.6 billion people across the globe and make that work autonomously and low energy cost. Of course, to meet these requirements, the toy has a respectable size and remembers very little traditional drones. With a structure made of carbon fiber, the vehicle is light and durable, but at the same time has an upper span of a Boeing 737 - passing easily 40 meters.
Look at the size of the toy!
With this set, the company's goal is that each Aquila covers an area of almost 100 km long on the ground while they perform flights that can last up to 90 days - all spending a very small amount of energy. How could it be, Facebook recorded all times of the experiment on video and shared the compilation "before, during and after" the social network itself, giving a taste of what the project means for the company.
Gliding to the future
Although the vehicle "only" has flown to 40 km / h at an altitude of 2,000 feet - well below the 128 km / h and 60 thousand to 90 thousand feet planned for the final phase of the contract - the duration of the trip surprised everyone involved . The plan was that the air path to lengthen for 30 minutes before the equipment back to the mainland, but the machine's performance was so good that they decided to keep him in heaven by 1:30 H
This additional time roaming the test region in the state of Arizona, allowed the drone to collect further information on the initiative and to the respect of the functioning of the model. This means that the team could better evaluate - among other things - elements such as autopilot, motors, batteries, radio dials, aerodynamics, structural viability and performance of the ground team.
Hard not to see the beauty of these scenes, is not it?
Zuckerberg himself was keen to follow this debut flight in person, reinforcing its conviction of the importance of the Internet in people's lives - directly affecting fields such as education and health. In addition to the global proposal for digital inclusion, the Facebook founder of the plan should also allow more Internet users use current and future services company - the social network to the initiatives of artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
For now, it is not known exactly when the project will be implemented officially on a global scale, as it will still require more complex stages of development ranging agreements with the government of different countries, changes in the rules of use of airspace and to further discussions on privacy. Still, it is interesting to imagine that in the near future, the world can be truly and fully connected.
Video Here https://www.facebook.com/facebook/videos/10154835146021729/