INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
At the Farnborough International Airshow, a 35-meter wide black plane with wafer-thin wings is suspended on a wall beside an exhibit of BAE
Systems' cutting-edge space technology
nothing but solar power.The drone on display at Farnborough is a scale model, but real test flights will take place next year and finished
international production developer at BAE Systems
using high-altitude helium balloons to tackle the problem
Project Loon's balloons have a typical life of around 100 days, and Alphabet is currently in talks with telecom operators in Kenya to
bring remote parts of the country online.Alphabet's Project Loon uses helium balloons to bring internet access to remote locationsFacebook
began developing a solar-powered drone, Aquila, in 2014
A prototype completed a 96-minute test flight in 2017, but in June 2018 Facebook shelved the project in favor of collaborating with
dedicated aerospace companies."When we started the Aquila program back in 2014, very few companies were involved in this area," Facebook's
Yael Maguire wrote in a blog post announcing the news."It's been exciting to see leading companies in the aerospace industry start
Given these developments, we've decided not to design or build our own aircraft any longer."Far and wideBAE Systems and Prismatic are
exploring different ways to market PHASA-35, including selling the drone itself, the drone together with a payload, or delivering it as a
The drones are currently being made in UK, but customers could take manufacturing into their own countries.The next steps for the project as
