Aquila, the solar-powered plane that has been designed by the Facebook team to beam internet to remote parts of the world has successfully completed its first flight.
The announcement was made by Mark Zuckerburg on his Facebook page.
The flight took place before dawn in Yuma, Arizona.
The original mission was to fly Aquila for 30 minutes, but things went so well that they decided to keep the plane up for 96 minutes.
Zuckerburg said that they have gathered lots of data about the models and the aircraft structure and after two years of development, it was emotional to see Aquila actually get off the ground.
The 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.
See the video below of the test flight.
