A solar-powered drone backed by Facebook that could one day provide worldwide internet access has quietly completed a test flight in Arizona after an earlier attempt ended with a crash landing.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's long-term plan for the drone, called Aquila, is to have it and others provide internet access to 4 billion people around the world who are currently in the dark.
"When Aquila is ready, it will be a fleet of solar-powered planes that will beam internet connectivity across the world," he wrote Thursday on Facebook.
The drone's second flight was completed in May at Yuma Proving Ground, The Yuma Sun reported (http://bit.ly/2tzuWhB ).
The drone flew with more sensors, new spoilers and a horizontal propeller stopping system to help it better land after the crash in December. It was in the air for an hour and 46 minutes and elevated 3,000 feet (910 meters).
The drone flew with the engineering team watching a live stream from a helicopter chasing the drone, said Martin Luis Gomez, Facebook's director of aeronautical platforms.
The team was thrilled with the outcome, Gomez said.
"The improvements we implemented based on Aquila's performance during its first test flight made a significant difference in this flight," he said.
The drone weighs about 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms) and has a longer wingspan than a Boeing 747.
The drone runs mostly on autopilot, but there are manned ground crews to manage certain maneuvers.
"We successfully gathered a lot of data to help us optimize Aquila's efficiency," Zuckerberg said. "No one has ever built an unmanned airplane that will fly for months at a time, so we need to tune every detail to get this right."
California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction
California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday.
California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform's algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children's access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in 2022 barring online platforms from using users' personal information in ways that could harm children. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
"Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night," Newsom said in a statement. "With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits."
The law bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children's accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their... Read More