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Facebook's Solar-Powered Drone Under Investigation After 'Accident' (theguardian.com)
Facebook has hit a hitch in its plans to use a solar-powered unmanned drone to provide internet access to developing nations, after it was revealed the American National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has opened an investigation into an accident on the drone's first test flight in June. From a report on The Guardian:At the time, Facebook described the flight as "successful": the drone, called Aquila, stayed aloft for 96 minutes, three times the planned duration. "We have a lot of work ahead of us," Jay Parikh, Facebook's head of engineering and infrastructure, wrote when Facebook revealed the test flight, in late July. "In our next tests, we will fly Aquila faster, higher and longer, eventually taking it above 60,000 feet." In a second, more technical, blogpost published that same day, Facebook's Martin Luis Gomez and Andrew Cox acknowledged the failure in passing. "Our first flight lasted three times longer than the minimum mission length, so we were able to gather data on how the structure and autopilot responded under a range of real-world conditions to help verify these predictions," they wrote.Reporter Casey Newton mentioned on The Verge that at the time, Facebook had led them believe that everything was alright, and there were no hiccups.
In a second, more technical, blogpost published that same day, Facebook's Martin Luis Gomez and Andrew Cox acknowledged the failure in passing. "Our first flight lasted three times longer than the minimum mission length, so we were able to gather data on how the structure and autopilot responded under a range of real-world conditions to help verify these predictions," they wrote.
I read that three times trying to figure out whether the "in passing" mention of failure was so subtle that I was missing it. Nope, the editors simply left out the actually relevant quote:
“We are still analysing the results of the extended test, including a structural failure we experienced just before landing. We hope to share more details on this and other structural tests in the future,” Cox and Gomez added.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
this device exists solely for internet.org, zuck's imperialist project to bring internet to india through facebook. Among questions still unanswered:
1. why are you continuing to insist on this if India itself has flatly refused this "branded internet" thats contingent upon your social media site
2. How will you fly drones in foreign airspace without the consent of a host country?
3. How do you justify brining internet to countries like Malawi, Zamibia, and Angola when a grain shipment or food programme would do far more to improve the lives of these people than another American drone?
4. Egypt and South Africa already have high-speed internet available to the general public. did you forget this? or are you just trying to erode public investment in open and neutral networks?
Good people go to bed earlier.
From Facebook's perspective, the best thing about testing "developing countries" is probably that dropping a drone on someone's head from 60,000 feet will mean, at worst, they're out a three goats and a pair of chickens. (See also: drug makers and name-a-country.)
Who knew!
Nope. Compare Developed Economy.
...
Or maybe it's because of race.
More likely due to climate.
If you're a slacker in the Caribbean, Africa, or some tropical Pacific Island, you live.
If you're a slacker in ancient Europe, China, or Japan, come winter you freeze to death.
Are you fucking shitting me? No aircraft designed since 1990 should ever have a structural failure unless the pilot deliberately took it over structural mach. The FAA was grossly negligent to throw away a century's worth of aviation safety experience and just let any fucking idiot put anything in the sky and call it a drone.
This is interesting how?
A pox on web designers who feel that window.innerWidth == screen.availWidth
Well India probably isn't the place than. While the availability of justice to the average Indian might still leave a lot to be desired, it is a nation with a strong legal frame work (when used) and international pull to go after a company like facebook.
Where FB is concerned deep pockets will get attention anytime there is blood on the water. They would be much better off conducting dangerous experiments in one of the many failed states, where they could pretty much count on being able to fire up the corporate jet and leave if things got dicey.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Oh no... Once the villagers figure out WHO was responsible and how much $$ they have, you can bet the army of ambulance chasing local lawyers will be out in force making sure Facebook pays though the legal system.... Unless they have bribed the proper local authorities to skirt the legal system.
Either way, they will pay...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Don't forget Malaria.
'Society' is lucky to actually 'invest'* 1%. The difference in disease rates is a part of why societies/cultures with latitudes above the winter 'frost line' had resources to play with. They still squandered them on cathedrals more often than not.
* Things like school buildings, city walls, field clearing and literal swamp draining. As opposed to things like education and farming, which are ongoing expenses.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
"A horrible Facebook Solar drone accident"
"In shocking news today, Facebooks solar powered drone sucked up all available sunlight for a period of about 96 minutes..."
...
I assumed *complete* reporting to indicate the failure was inability to land which caused them to exceed planned mission time significantly.
I was imagining them loosing control and the bird simply kept flying on its own.
cannot trust *any* reporting
Except they aren't testing (solely) in developing countries; this test and whatever anomaly ensued took place in Arizona. Not exactly the population center of the US, granted, but the tests are being done here at home.
Facebook isn't alone in this regard, either, as Google has its own fleet of experimental drones. N749G flew over my house in the Memphis suburbs last Monday night enroute from KSIK to KOLV. The FAA says it's an "Ashfloyd Hummingbird," whose manufacturer has essentially zero public presence, but the model has been tied to Google's Project Wing. I kinda wish they'd keep their testing a little more remote.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
Zuck's FB ponzi scheme is both going up and crashing down in flames all around him.
As already pointed out (+5 by sacrilicious), the TFS doesn't make sense. Why not update the summary with the missing line of the quote and include the disclaimer "EDIT: summary updated with full relevant quote".
Mistakes are human, but fixing them is an act of kindness to the readers that don't hit the site in the first wave.
Smells like a bad wind gust during final approach broke her back. These things are built so light that they are pretty fragile, and that can't be helped because weight is king here. NASA's Helios broke up at altitude due to gusts, and Google's drone broke up during climb to altitude, from what sounds like uneven thermal updraft winds. Facebook wants to launch theirs by balloon to avoid the launch/climb risks, but landing will be a mess regardless since they can't afford the weight of a recovery parachute. They don't even have proper landing gear, just some crushable foam skid struts.