When the unmanned flying wing landed, the wind suddenly blew up. Facebook Inc.
Aquila drone
Powered by the sun, wider than Boeing 737
It's hard to adjust.
Just before landing, part of the right wing broke.
First flight 2016 proved to be an unlucky start for Facebook to enter the Internet --
But maybe a proper drone.
Two years later, the company stopped planning to develop its own aircraft.
Since then, companies like Amazon. com Inc.
And SpaceX has made a big bet to offer Internet services around the world with thousands of small satellites.
SpaceX's plan will be launched on Thursday with 60 internet-
Satellite launch.
But don't count solar energy. powered, high-
Drone height
Or a huge balloon.
Progress of solar energy
Battery and battery technology make these technologies more feasible.
Japan telecom giant SoftBank last month
Said it will cooperate with AeroVironment Inc. , a maker of Simi Valley drones
Make an unmanned aircraft capable of flying to the same temperature, hover in an area for several months, and transmit the Internet to users on Earth as a floating cell tower.
Airbus and Boeing
They are also developing their own high version. flying, solar-powered drones.
Driving these projects and other projects is a commitment to 5g connectivity. That fifth-
The new generation of cellular technology that has just been launched will greatly increase the download speed.
Supporters say its reliability should enable services like self-service
Driving cars and telemedicine.
Connecting remote users will further enhance the market potential, says John Robbins, associate professor of aviation science at Embry-and coordinator of the drone systems program
Riddle University of aviation
"It is very important to increase the footprint that people can access this information," he said . ".
"This is a way.
"The attraction of drones and balloons is that they are much cheaper than building towers in remote areas.
Their location is closer to the Earth than the satellite and can provide faster response times, said Tim Farrar, president of TMF Associates, a telecoms consultancy and research firm at Menlo Park.
Industry experts estimate that only 10% to 20% of the Earth's land area is covered by land towers.
Mobile operators are interested in providing ongoing services on a global scale, especially given the coverage required for advanced 5g applications.
Drones can also be used in case of an emergency when the launch tower is destroyed or offline.
"If you can broadcast the internet to remote areas for a long time, it will be a very ideal ability," said Arthur Holland Michel.
The director of the Research Center's drone is at Bud College, New York.
"You can connect a lot of users and significantly boost your bottom line.
The problem is that this is a very complex technical challenge.
"For many years, several companies have been working to meet the challenge of keeping drones flying in the air for a long time.
In the 1990 s, NASA formed alliances with AeroVironment, Aurora Flight Science (acquired by Boeing in 2017), Mojave-and others
Proportion-based composites purchased by Northrop Grumman
San Diego-2007-
Based on universal atomic technology, technology is developed for unmanned aircraft that can be used to perform scientific and environmental tasks in high altitude areas.
The result is a few solar/power-
The power prototype, including modifications to the drone environment, was originally built to become a confidential program for Pathfinder Plus.
In a test flight, the plane reached a height of 80,201 feet.
The company has developed other high
A prototype of a flying drone, such as Helios, reached 96,863 feet in the 2001 test.
At that time, however, the limitations of solar energy
AeroVironment's chief executive, Wahid Nawabi, said battery efficiency and the cost and efficiency of battery storage make these aircraft commercially impossible.
Recently, high
Tech giant Facebook and Google's parent company Alphabet's driverless efforts have also failed for similar reasons.
Last year, after Facebook blocked its own Internet
Drone design-
A spokesman declined to say how much the company spent on the plan.
It chose to work with Airbus and other partners.
After Alphabet turned off its solar broadband
The drone project, which turned its focus to balloons.
Its Loon subsidiary uses giant balloons floating around 65,000 feet to send Internet signals.
Alphabet told Bloomberg that Loon's "economic and technological feasibility" is a "more promising way" to connect rural and remote parts of the world ".
"Tennis Court in Longcun-
The size of the balloon has flown more than 18 million miles and was used in Puerto Rico for six months after Hurricane Maria in 2017.
A Loon official said at a joint news conference with Softbank last month that the typical balloon stayed for about 150 days, although the goal was to reach an average life span of 300 days.
Last month, HAPSMobile, a joint venture between SoftBank and AeroVironment, said it would establish a "strategic relationship" with Loon, which would come up with $125.
Millions of investments from HAPSMobile.
Analysts say drones may be easier to control and command than balloons.
Improvement of energy
AeroVironment's latest drone, hawk30, can see the carrying capacity and cost of solar cells and batteries.
The Hawk30 was launched a month ago, with wings of 256 feet and 10 propellers along the edge.
SoftBank said it was able to stay in the air for six consecutive months, covering a radius of about 124 miles.
The longest solar energy
Fly with previous power-
On 2001, the AeroVironment generation drone flew for 18 hours.
In a translation speech late last month, a SoftBank executive said that Hawk30 will collect electricity from the sun during the day and run out of batteries at night.
AeroVironment declined to disclose whether the Hawk30 drone had made its first flight or what its flight schedule was due to competition.
But the most fundamental challenge to make these systems work is to balance aircraft weight, endurance and power consumption.
"I think there is a lot of hope for these planes," Robbins said . ".
"This is just something that depends on the state of technology today.
Michelle is more cautious in the Netherlands.
After all, SoftBank has also invested in OneWeb, which is developing a broadband satellite constellation.
"There's really someone guessing if this is the time when they actually crack the code," he said . ".