Mark Zuckerberg is once step closer to providing internet access around the world.
According to The Yuma Sun, Facebook’s solar-powered drone successfully completed its test flight in Arizona, more than a year after the initial test run ended in a crash.
Zuckerberg wants to use the drone, called Aquila, to “beam” internet connectivity to some of the most remote areas in the world. The Facebook co-founder wrote that there are about 4 billion people—about half of the world’s population—who are left without access.
“We successfully gathered a lot of data to help us optimize Aquila's efficiency. No one has ever built an unmanned airplane that will fly for months at a time, so we need to tune every detail to get this right,” Zuckerberg recently wrote on Facebook. “When Aquila is ready, it will be a fleet of solar-powered planes that will beam internet connectivity across the world. Today, more than half the world's population—four billion people—still can't access the internet. One day, Aquila will help change that.”
