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Facebook pulls the plug on its Aquila internet drone
You'll want to say goodbye to dreams of Facebook-made internet drones. The company will stop designing and manufacturing its own aircraft, and is closing the relevant facility in the British town of Bridgwater. According to Facebook, it's not necessary when "leading companies" in aerospace have been designing their own high-altitude flying machines. Instead, the social network can focus on developing the high-altitude internet access systems and work with partners to both develop the connectivity itself and put it in the skies. This includes policies (such as a proposal for more spectrum at a 2019 conference) and rule-making committees.
Facebook's WiFi locator is available to users worldwide
Last year, Facebook began testing its "Find WiFi" feature on its app, which lets you locate businesses nearby that have free, public WiFi. Find WiFi was launched in a few countries in 2016 and today Facebook announced it would be expanding the feature globally.
Facebook successfully lands its Aquila drone for the first time
Facebook has been testing its solar-powered unmanned aircraft, Aquila, for the past couple of years. The internet-providing drone made its first full flight last June, though it crashed on landing after the 96-minute flight in Yuma, Arizona. The accident prompted a US investigation, which found that the autonomous plane went down due to windy conditions. The second full flight, just announced by Facebook, took place on May 22, ran for one hour and 46 minutes and landed successfully.
Facebook's latest drone delivers internet during a disaster
Internet connectivity is kind of like air: something we take for granted until we can't get it. To help make communications easier during disaster scenarios, Facebook has come up with the "Tether-antenna." At its simplest, it's a small, unmanned helicopter that can hook onto undamaged fiber-and-power lines (when cellular connectivity has been damaged or is otherwise unavailable) and then hover "a few hundred feet from the ground," according to a Facebook Developers blog post. "When completed, this technology will be able to be deployed immediately and operate for months at a time to bring back connectivity in case of an emergency -- ensuring the local community can stay connected while the in0ground connectivity is under repair."
Facebook's internet drone crash-landed because it was windy
Facebook celebrated the first full test flight of its solar-powered internet drone, Aquila, in July, but things didn't go as smoothly as they could have. The drone completed a 96-minute flight in Yuma, Arizona, but it ended up crash-landing because of a structural failure in the right wing, according to today's report from the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB announced in November that it would investigate the accident.
Facebook drone failure prompts a US investigation
Facebook may have been beaming with pride when it completed the first full test of its Aquila internet drone on June 28th, but that "structural failure" near the end? US officials aren't so happy about that. The National Transportation Safety Board has revealed that it's investigating the incident, which it considers "substantial" enough to be treated as an accident. The exact circumstances aren't available, but there wasn't any damage on the ground.
ICYMI: Bubba Watson builds a jetpack, Facebook flies its solar drone
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: To celebrate the return of golf to the Olympics, PGA Tour Pro Bubba Watson is teaming up with Oakley to create the "Bubba Watson Jetpack" -- a mode of transportation sure to blow the roof off of conventional golf carts. We also take a look at the maiden test flight of Facebook's solar-powered, internet-beaming unmanned aerial vehicle, the Aquila. It didn't crash! And, as it's the end of the week, we'll recap the most important stories that you may have missed. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Facebook's solar-powered drone makes first full test flight
Facebook's solar-powered, internet-beaming plane Aquila is finally ready for takeoff after two years of engineering and scale model flights. As the company reports today, a full-scale version of Aquila made its first official flight on June 28th, staying aloft for 96 minutes while the ground crew tested everything from the autopilot system to the aerodynamics and radios.
Facebook made a solar-powered plane to deliver internet
Facebook started teasing its internet-beaming planes last year, but now we're seeing one that it actually built. Pictured above is Aquila, a solar-powered, 140-foot unmanned plane that's designed to deliver internet connectivity from altitudes of 60,000 to 90,000 feet. The UAV, which has the wingspan of a Boeing 737 and weighs roughly 880 pounds, will be able to circle a specific area for up to 90 days when deployed -- a feat possible thanks to its dependence on nothing but solar energy. What's also interesting is how it gets up in the air; Facebook says it uses a balloon to carry Aquila to the aforementioned altitude range, although it's still unclear how the Federal Aviation Administration plans to control this type of traffic.
Facebook developing solar drones to deliver global web access
There are an estimated five billion people worldwide who lack reliable internet access but Facebook is reportedly "ready to spend billions" in order to change that. The Menlo Park-based company has recently announced plans to deliver global connectivity on the backs of enormous, solar-powered UAV, dubbed project Aquila. The plan is still very much in its initial planning stages but Facebook appears to be dedicated to making it a reality. Facebook acquired UAV maker Ascenta last year as its in-house drone design team and has already set them to work developing a platform capable of spending up to three months aloft while cruising at altitudes between 60,000 to 90,000 feet. Each UAV is expected to have a wingspan rivaling Boeing 767 (about 156 feet from tip to tip) but only weigh about as much as a Kia.
Sharks, skulls, and ships: One year of Pirate101
Pirate101 is a strange beast. It is a family-friendly, free-to-play, colorful MMO with silly characters, simple design, and quirky environments. Adventuring in Pirate101 sometimes demands that you investigate the secrets of a city that literally sits on top of a flying whale or that you and your friends (a fencing crab, perhaps, or a sharpshooting fox) leap onto a flaming, flying pirate ship in order to punch sharks in the face and steal their treasure. Hidden underneath the silliness, however, is a relatively deep turn-based strategy game designed to engage younger gamers while ensuring their adult counterparts have a good time. KingsIsle Entertainment isn't in the business of making kids games; instead, the studio strives to create titles that kids and parents can play together. The success of Pirate101 in its first year demonstrates that KingsIsle might just be on to something. Let's take a little peek back on the last 12 months of Pirate101 to examine its major milestones.
Pirate101 prepping 'largest expansion to date'
Two new world expansions are on the horizon for Pirate101. KingsIsle is prepping Books 13 and 14, which feature the war-torn skyway of Marleybone and the "legendary beauty and danger found throughout Aquila," according to the studio. The updates comprise the free-to-play fantasy title's largest expansion to date. KingsIsle says that these new worlds are coming to the Members Only Test Realm in short order, with deployment on the live servers soon to follow. Sail past the cut for a bit of lore and some exclusive screenshots. [Source: KingsIsle press release]
Samsung's ARM roadmap lays coordinates through 2013: Aquila, Venus, and Draco (oh my)
Ah, leaked company presentation slides, they have a clarity only Mr. Blurrycam would despise. EETimes got a batch of them from Samsung dated November 2009 making the rounds, but more important than revealing its equal love for both Roman and Greek mythology, we get a glimpse at its then-planned ARM chip roadmap (yeah, another one) through 2013. In a nutshell, for the Cortex A9 crowd we've got the 800MHz dual core "Orion" due for mass production in Q1 2011, a 1GHz single core "Pegasus" for Q4 2011, a 1GHz dual core "Hercules" for Q1 2012, and for sometime in 2012 / 2013, a 1.2GHz dual core "Draco" and quad core "Aquila." Fear not, Cortex A5 fanatics, you've got gifts as well, in the form of 600MHz single core "Mercury" and dual core "Venus" chips, slated for 2010 / 2011 and 2012 / 2013, respectively. We don't expect the nomenclature to extend beyond internal usage, but frankly, who cares -- it's the devices that count, and unfortunately all we can do is doodle our future gadget hopes and dreams onto scraps of paper while we wait.
