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Facebook will create thousands of semi-autonomous drones the size of jumbo jets which will fly 17 miles above the Earth to provide wireless internet access to the four billion people currently unable to get online
A solar-powered Titan Aerospace Solara 50 drone Photo: AP
Facebook will create thousands of drones the size of jumbo jets which will fly 17 miles above the Earth to provide wireless internet access to the four billion people currently unable to get online.
The social network announced in March that it was in negotiations to buy drone maker Titan Aerospace, which was subsequently snapped-up by Google. Now it seems that the company is developing its own drones instead.
Today, only 2.7 billion people – just over one-third of the world's population – have access to the internet, according to Facebook. The social networking company is one of the main backers of the internet.org project which aims to connect the large parts of the world which remain offline.
Initially it was thought that Facebook would create around 11,000 smaller drones with the help of Titan Aerospace. But a senior engineer has now revealed that the company’s plan B is far more ambitious even than that.
"We're going to have to push the edge of solar technology, battery technology, composite technology," said Yael Maguire, the leader of Facebook's new Connectivity Lab, during a panel session at the Social Good Summit in New York this week. "There are a whole bunch of challenges."
To fly for months and years at a time the drones will need to rise above the weather, flying at between 60,000 and 90,000 feet – around 17 miles above the ground.
Flying this high will solve problems associated with weather, but could throw up new legislative ones. Above 60,000 feet there are essentially no regulations on aircraft – commercial airlines routinely fly at around half of that altitude.
Rules regarding satellites will “play a very useful role”, said Maguire, but the company will also have to “help pave new ground”.
Regulations regarding human operators will also need to be adjusted if the company’s plans are to be a success. Currently one person must be in control of an aircraft at all times, but Facebook hopes to change legislation so that one person can control ten or even a hundred partially-automated aircraft.
"We can't have one person per plane if we want to figure out how to connect the world,” said Maguire.
The aircraft will be “roughly the size of a commercial aircraft, like a 747” said Maguire, but they will be far, far lighter. One prototype currently being worked on is about the length of seven cars, but weighs the same as just four car tyres.
The planes will be tested at some point next year, somewhere in the US, and the company hopes to have them working and in operation over developing countries within three to five years. It has already chosen 21 locations around the world where it would like to deploy them, in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and is looking for charities to run the equipment once it is manufactured.
Google is also working on similar technology to Facebook, having bought drone manufacturer Titan Aerospace earlier this year. The company creates solar-powered drones which can fly for several years at a time.
A Google spokesperson said at the time of the takeover: "It’s still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation. "
The search giant also launched Project Loon in 2013 which is investigating the use of high-altitude weather balloons which can transmit internet signals to the ground for the same purpose.
Facebook drones the size of jumbo jets to soar 17 miles up - Telegraph
A solar-powered Titan Aerospace Solara 50 drone Photo: AP
Facebook will create thousands of drones the size of jumbo jets which will fly 17 miles above the Earth to provide wireless internet access to the four billion people currently unable to get online.
The social network announced in March that it was in negotiations to buy drone maker Titan Aerospace, which was subsequently snapped-up by Google. Now it seems that the company is developing its own drones instead.
Today, only 2.7 billion people – just over one-third of the world's population – have access to the internet, according to Facebook. The social networking company is one of the main backers of the internet.org project which aims to connect the large parts of the world which remain offline.
Initially it was thought that Facebook would create around 11,000 smaller drones with the help of Titan Aerospace. But a senior engineer has now revealed that the company’s plan B is far more ambitious even than that.
"We're going to have to push the edge of solar technology, battery technology, composite technology," said Yael Maguire, the leader of Facebook's new Connectivity Lab, during a panel session at the Social Good Summit in New York this week. "There are a whole bunch of challenges."
To fly for months and years at a time the drones will need to rise above the weather, flying at between 60,000 and 90,000 feet – around 17 miles above the ground.
Flying this high will solve problems associated with weather, but could throw up new legislative ones. Above 60,000 feet there are essentially no regulations on aircraft – commercial airlines routinely fly at around half of that altitude.
Rules regarding satellites will “play a very useful role”, said Maguire, but the company will also have to “help pave new ground”.
Regulations regarding human operators will also need to be adjusted if the company’s plans are to be a success. Currently one person must be in control of an aircraft at all times, but Facebook hopes to change legislation so that one person can control ten or even a hundred partially-automated aircraft.
"We can't have one person per plane if we want to figure out how to connect the world,” said Maguire.
The aircraft will be “roughly the size of a commercial aircraft, like a 747” said Maguire, but they will be far, far lighter. One prototype currently being worked on is about the length of seven cars, but weighs the same as just four car tyres.
The planes will be tested at some point next year, somewhere in the US, and the company hopes to have them working and in operation over developing countries within three to five years. It has already chosen 21 locations around the world where it would like to deploy them, in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and is looking for charities to run the equipment once it is manufactured.
Google is also working on similar technology to Facebook, having bought drone manufacturer Titan Aerospace earlier this year. The company creates solar-powered drones which can fly for several years at a time.
A Google spokesperson said at the time of the takeover: "It’s still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation. "
The search giant also launched Project Loon in 2013 which is investigating the use of high-altitude weather balloons which can transmit internet signals to the ground for the same purpose.
Facebook drones the size of jumbo jets to soar 17 miles up - Telegraph
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