Facebook’s giant internet drone finally completes first test flight

After several months testing smaller scale models, Facebook has successfully completed its first full-scale test flight of the massive Aquila drone. With a wingspan rivaling that of a Boeing 737, only weighing much less due to a carbon fiber composite design, the team reached a major milestone by launching, and flying, the drone for more than 90 minutes — more than three times the planned test run.

That drone, dubbed “Aquila,” completed its first successful flight in Yuma, Arizona, according to a post on Facebook from Mark Zuckerberg’s account on Thursday.

Upon the completion of the Aquila, Facebook said in a blog post that the drone will be able to beam down internet connections from a height of over 60,000 feet across regions covering a diameter of 60 miles. Aquila will utilize laser and millimeter wave systems for the task, and is expected to be up in the air for as long as three months before needing to land.

"Aquila is designed to be hyper efficient, so it can fly for up to three months at a time," said Jay Parikh, Facebook's head of engineering and infrastructure. "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."

The laser that the Aquila will use is able to deliver data at speeds of 10s of Gbps, and is accurate enough to be able to hit a target the size of a dime from a distance of 10 miles away.

After two years of development, the drone stayed in the air for 90 minutes, but it’s not ready for full-scale operation yet. Zuckerberg said the 1,000-pound drone will need to be made lighter to last in the air for longer spans. Facebook is also working on adjusting power, weight capacity and a communications payload that will use lasers to transfer data more than 10 times faster than existing systems.

Intending to provide internet to the 1.6 billion people worldwide that don’t have access to it, Facebook plans to use the solar-powered drone to beam coverage to 60-mile-wide areas on the ground while staying airborne for up to 90 days at a time all while drawing no more power than a trio of hair dryers.

Over the next year we’re going to keep testing Aquila — flying higher and longer, and adding more planes and payloads,” Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook. “It’s all part of our mission to connect the world and help more of the 4 billion people who are not online access all the opportunities of the internet.