Shortly after its launch earlier this month, a prototype of Google's solar-powered drones crash-landed at a test site east of Albuquerque, NM, according to a report from Bloomberg.
The downed drone was a Solara 50, an unmanned aircraft that was designed to stay aloft for up to five years.
Google hopes to eventually use such aircraft to beam down Wi-Fi Internet to remote and under-served regions of the world—and it is not the only one with such ambitions.
A Google spokeswoman Courtney Hone acknowledged the prototype's May 1 crash and didn't deny that the incident is a set back. But overcoming hurdles is intrinsic in the development of new technology, Hone told Bloomberg.
"Although our prototype plane went down during a recent test, we remain optimistic about the potential of solar-powered planes to help deliver connectivity," said Hohne.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. Preliminary incident reports haven't been filed yet.
The Solara 50 was developed by Titan Aerospace, a company Google acquired last year for an undisclosed sum.
"It is still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring Internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation," a Google spokesperson said last year.
Back in March, Google said its Wi-Fi-giving drones were about on par with its other aerial Internet project, Project Loon. Project Loon was launched about four years ago and built from scratch by the mad scientists at Google's secretive Project X division.
Instead of drones, Project Loon uses high-altitude balloons to share Internet service with people on the ground. The project has recently made a significant breakthrough.
Previously, each of Project Loon's balloons had to maintain a connection to stations on the ground in order to share Wi-Fi. The balloons also had to be within 50 miles of a station in order to connect to them.
Now, the balloons are able to link with one another, via high-frequency connections. The inter-Loon-link will allow them to serve as airborne repeaters, capable of extending their Wi-Fi payload much deeper into remote territory.
So back to the Solara 50. Here's a promo trailer for the drone:
