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Facebook develops solar power drones

Facebook is flying high.

The social media company has developed a fleet of lightweight drones that can send the Internet down to millions of people around the globe, it announced at the second day of its F8 conference in San Francisco.

The drone, named Aquila, was created to push Facebook’s Internet.org mission forward.

It has the wingspan of a Boeing 787 but weighs less than a car and can run for months at a time on solar power, the media reports said.

Aquila reportedly will be able to beam the Internet 60,000 to 90,000 feet down using lasers and will focus on the 10% of the world’s population that lives in remote, Internet-restricted regions. The drones will also be able to communicate with each other to maintain steady power for Internet users.

Facebook plans to test-fly the drones this summer and said it will roll out its usage over the next few years.