Project Update

On June 28th, we completed the first successful flight of Aquila — our solar-powered plane that will beam the internet to remote parts of the world and eventually break the record for longest unmanned aircraft flight.
The flight took place before dawn in Yuma, Arizona. Our original mission was to fly Aquila for 30 minutes, but things went so well that we decided to keep the plane up for 96 minutes. We gathered lots of data about our models and the aircraft structure — and after two years of development, it was emotional to see Aquila actually get off the ground.
But as big as this milestone is, we still have a lot of work to do. Eventually, our goal is to have a fleet of Aquilas flying together at 60,000 feet, communicating with each other with lasers and staying aloft for months at a time — something that’s never been done before.
To get there, we need to solve some difficult engineering challenges. Here are a few that we’re working on.