{"id":333210,"date":"2017-07-01T11:24:13","date_gmt":"2017-07-01T11:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=333210"},"modified":"2017-07-01T11:24:13","modified_gmt":"2017-07-01T11:24:13","slug":"facebook-drone-in-successful-test-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/07\/facebook-drone-in-successful-test-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook drone in successful test flight"},"content":{"rendered":"
Facebook has completed a second test of a solar-powered drone designed to bring internet access to remote parts of the world.<\/p>\n
The drone – dubbed Aquila – flew for one hour and 46 minutes in Arizona.<\/p>\n
On Aquila’s maiden voyage last summer, the autopilot system was confused by heavy wind and crash-landed.<\/p>\n
This time, the drone flew at an altitude of 3,000ft, a long way from Facebook’s intended 60,000ft goal.<\/p>\n
The social network has ambitious plans for its drone fleet and eventually wants to have them communicating with each other via lasers and staying in the air for months at a time.<\/p>\n
The test – which took place in May but is only now being made public – went “perfectly”, according to a blog post detailing the flight.<\/p>\n
Facebook had initially heralded its June 2016 test a success but later admitted the drone had crashed on landing.<\/p>\n
The crash was only revealed when it emerged that it had been investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.<\/p>\n
This time, the engineering team added “spoilers” to the wings to increase drag and reduce lift during landing. They also modified the autopilot software and applied a smoother finish to the craft.<\/p>\n
The team filmed the landing and included the video in the blog post.<\/p>\n
Director of aeronautical platforms Martin Luis Gomez said the drone had suffered “a few minor, easily repairable dings”.<\/p>\n
Aquila – which has a wingspan of a Boeing 737 – is part of Facebook’s ambitious plans to connect the world to the internet.<\/p>\n
This week, it announced that it has two billion users, more than a quarter of the world’s population.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Facebook has completed a second test of a solar-powered drone designed to bring internet access to remote parts of the world. The drone – dubbed Aquila – flew for one hour and 46 minutes in Arizona. On Aquila’s maiden voyage last summer, the autopilot system was confused by heavy wind and crash-landed. This time, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106],"tags":[1492,1123,339],"yoast_head":"\n