Facebook has a new solar-powered internet plane

FACEBOOK wants to give internet to the entire world. Its latest plan is to do so with a giant solar powered drone that looks like a fighter jet.

FACEBOOK says it is ready to begin test flights of a high-altitude drone designed to provide internet access to remote locations of the world.

The Aquila drone has a wingspan on par with that of a Boeing 737 jet, weighs less than a small car and can remain aloft for three months or so. It also looks like a freaking stealth fighter jet.

It will beam internet service to the ground from altitudes ranging from 18,000 to 27,000 metres.

Yael Maguire, the engineering director of the project, told journalists the Aquila team had achieved a significant milestone with laser communications for high-speed data connections that are faster than most current speeds.

Using the solar-powered drone could mean “quickly bringing connectivity to an area that needs it”, he said at a presentation at Facebook’s California headquarters.

“Our goal is to accelerate the development of a new set of technologies that can drastically change the economics of deploying internet infrastructure,” Facebook vice president of global engineering and infrastructure Jay Parikh said in a blog post. “We are exploring a number of different approaches to this challenge, including aircraft, satellites and terrestrial solutions.” But he said this would not lead to Facebook becoming an internet operator or carrier.

“Our goal is to provide the technology to other partners,” he said.

Facebook last year unveiled its ambitious plan to use drone, satellite and laser technology “to deliver the internet to everyone” via the leading online social network’s Connectivity Lab. “A full-scale version of Aquila — the high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft designed by our aerospace team in the UK — is now complete and ready for flight testing,” Parikh said.

Data fired off by the lasers can hit a target “the size of a dime from more than 16 kilometres away”.

Parikh said “ten per cent of the world’s population lives in remote locations with no internet infrastructure”, and it may be costly to deploy conventional systems like cable or cellular communication in these areas.

Facebook co-founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg posted a video about Aquila to his page at the social network.

The clip logged more than three quarters of a million views by midafternoon in California.

Zuckerberg wrote that he was excited that the team had built its first full-scale aircraft.