Facebook unveils solar-powered drone

Facebook has unveiled a new solar-powered drone which is designed to bring internet access to developing countries.

The Aquila drone will fly non-stop for three months at a time and will be tested in the US later this year.

According to Facebook, the drone has the wingspan of a Boeing 737 but weighs less than the average car due to its uniquely designed carbon-fibre frame.

The aircraft will fly above conventional air traffic and will provide internet connectivity to the world’s most remote areas using lasers and radio frequency technology as part of the company's ambitious internet.org project.

Jay Parikh, Facebook’s Vice President of Global Engineering and Infrastructure, said: “Our mission is to connect everybody in the world. This is going to be a great opportunity for us to motivate the industry to move faster on this technology.”

Parikh added: “Our intention is not to build networks and then operate them ourselves but rather to quickly advance the state of these technologies to the point that they become viable solutions for operators and other partners to deploy.”

Facebook chairman and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) said: "We've successfully tested a new laser that can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second. That's ten times faster than any previous system, and it can accurately connect with a point the size of a dime from more than 10 miles away. This effort is important because 10 per cent of the world's population lives in areas without existing internet infrastructure. To affordably connect everyone, we need to build completely new technologies.”

Facebook launched Internet.org in 2014 and the initiative aims to provide internet access to the two-thirds of the world population without a reliable connection.

Facebook partners with local mobile carriers on the project to offer free internet access on smartphones across Asia, Africa and Latin America.