BrandedLogoDesigns Report: Facebook: New opportunity for Aquila drone

Second chance for Aquila: The Internet-drone from the company of Facebook may rise again after their break-down landing during the first flight.
Facebook wants to get his Internet drone "Aquila" back into the air after the crash landing during the first flight last summer this year. "We will be flying a lot more this year," said Facebook Manager Jay Parikh at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Facebook's drone "Aquila", which was supposed to provide air links in remote areas, had been badly damaged during the failed landing after the maiden flight. The drone had stayed in the air for over an hour and a half in low air instead of the scheduled test duration of 30 minutes. At the landing approach, there was then strong turbulence, according to a report from American crash investigators - and a wrong decision of the autopilot software resulted in a several meter long section of the wing broke. Seconds later, the drone hit the ground at a speed of about 45 kilometers per hour. Facebook stressed at the time that you had valuable experience in the flight and will correct the error.

Google gives up

Meanwhile, it was announced in January that the Google Mother Alphabet had abandoned its competing project to deploy large drones to the Internet. The technical challenges are too great. Alphabet continues to pursue the goal of building an Internet supply from the air. The "Loon" ballons of the company are better suited for this than the drones, they said. Google had bought 2014 the drones developer Titan Aerospace, which also wanted to have Facebook.

Parikh, on the other hand, emphasized that Facebook is sticking to the "Aquila" crop project. The aircraft should remain autonomous for several months.