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Facebook Cancels Program To Deliver Internet By Aquila Drones (ieee.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the harder-than-it-looks dept.

Wave723 shares a report from IEEE Spectrum: Facebook's plans to beam high-speed Internet from enormous solar-powered drones in the stratosphere appear to be in disarray. Two key engineers behind its Aquila drones have left the company, and it recently cancelled plans for a secret high-altitude flight campaign at Spaceport America, possibly because Facebook no longer has any aircraft available to deploy.

A trove of emails between Facebook and Spaceport America, obtained under New Mexico public records law and first reported by Business Insider, details the painstaking process of turning a site for rockets and spaceplanes into a testbed for some of the largest drones in the world.

3 of 27 comments (clear)

  1. SubjectIsSubject by p0p0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The humans have become aware of our data collection techniques. We must put on hold our attempts to contact the mothership."
    - Mark "definitely not a space lizard" Zuckerberg

    1. Re:SubjectIsSubject by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 2

      "The humans have become aware of our data collection techniques. We must put on hold our attempts to contact the mothership."

      Well, I guess my new sig is appropriate here . . .

      Hey, it worked for Jeff Goldblum in Independence Day . . .

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  2. maybe there's another solution by Tsolias · · Score: 2

    if the drone solution failed, maybe you wanna try porting it to 3D... this worked for a lot of games that I used to play back in 1999.
    have you tried 3D printers?
    I'd suggest using VR or AR, but it would be so high, that noone will be able to see it.
    anyhow, such a great idea and it goes to waste. You can still make some money off of it on kickstarter. I know a good fake director if you need one.