Facebook announced that it is abandoning its plan of developing its own high-flying drones for delivering internet, an initiative within its Aquila project that was started four years ago.
The social network giant disclosed the news in a blog post titled “High altitude connectivity: The next chapter,” written by Yael Maguire, a director of engineering at Facebook.
Initially, Aquila was Facebook’s internet project that hoped to build drones running partially on solar power that could remain in flight for long periods of time and beam down LTE service to remote parts of the world.
The Aquila project conducted two public, high-profile test flights of a prototype drone, the first of which in 2016 resulted in serious damage to the aircraft during its landing. Now, instead of building aircraft of its own, Facebook says it will now focus on working with partners on high-altitude internet delivery systems and on policy matters related to securing spectrum and establishing federal rules around the operation of such systems.
“As we’ve worked on these efforts, it’s been exciting to see leading companies in the aerospace industry start investing in this technology too — including the design and construction of new high-altitude aircraft,” Maguire writes. “Given these developments, we’ve decided not to design or build our own aircraft any longer, and to close our facility in Bridgwater.” Maguire is referring to a facility in Bridgewater, England that headed up the Aquila project, specifically the design and development of the prototype drone itself.
With Facebook abandoning its plans to build internet drones, perhaps government in Africa can now partner with the tech firm to provide internet connection to rural areas. This will ensure that the process is controlled by the government while the companies like Facebook will remain partners.
