Facebook announced its plans to deploy internet drones capable of beaming wireless internet access to unconnected parts of the world a few months ago but few details beyond that were released.
Now, one of the leaders of the project has announced some interesting stuff regarding the solar-powered, laser-equipped drones that has the internet buzzing.
Engineering director at Facebook’s Connectivity Lab, Yael Maguire, recently said in an interview, “In order for us to fly these planes — unmanned planes that have to fly for months, or perhaps years at a time — we actually have to fly above the weather, above all airspace.”
He added the drones will be “roughly the size of a commercial aircraft, like a 747.”
Maguire certainly let the public in on some mind-boggling details about Facebook drones, seeing as most people did not expect the company to unleash internet drones the size of commercial aircraft!
This new announcement means there will be some massive aircraft patrolling the skies simply to bring WiFi to certain areas.
As of now, Facebook hopes to be able to test one of the company’s drones somewhere in the United States by 2015, although many test sites outside of the US are also being looked into.
We shall see how the prospect of using unmanned aircraft to provide developing countries with internet access will work out as time progresses.
Whatever the outcome, it is certainly a lofty and respectable goal by Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.
