According to The Guardian, Google is testing solar-powered drones at Spaceport America in New Mexico in an attempt to deliver high speed internet from the air. Google is also experimenting with a similar idea called Project Loon.
The company is reportedly renting 15,000 square feet of hangar space from Virgin Galactic — the commercial spaceflight outfit of business mogul Richard Branson — at the privately owned Spaceport America located near a town called Truth or Consequences (I assume the town’s name deters unsavory visitors).
The project is apparently codenamed SkyBender and to see its fruition, Google has built several prototype transceivers at the isolated spaceport last summer, and is testing them with multiple drones, according to documents obtained under public records laws. Cutting edge millimeter wave technology is what is being tested at the site. With it gigabits of data can be transmitted at up to 40 times the speed of 4G.
The SkyBender system is being tested with an “optionally piloted” aircraft called Centaur as well as solar-powered drones made by Google Titan, a division formed when Google acquired New Mexico startup Titan Aerospace in 2014.
Google is paying Virgin Galactic $1,000 a day for the use of a hangar in the Gateway to Space building, but had to split its SkyBender tests into two separate flight campaigns to ease Virgin Galactic concerns.
Google ultimately envisages thousands of high altitude “self-flying aircraft” delivering internet access around the world.
Source: The Guardian
