Massive Google test drone crashes during N.M. test, NTSB reports
Source: Bloomberg News
WASHINGTON A prototype of the massive, solar-powered drone Google plans to build as a platform for delivering Internet service from the sky was destroyed in a crash at a New Mexico test site.
The unmanned Solara 50 fell to the ground shortly after takeoff on May 1 and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, Keith Holloway, an agency spokesman, said in an interview. The accident occurred at a private airstrip east of Albuquerque and no one was injured, he said.
The crash is a setback for Googles high-altitude vision of how to bring Internet access to areas of the world without sufficient infrastructure on the ground. Google last year bought Titan Aerospace Corp., which is building the unmanned aircraft, for an undisclosed sum.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, didnt immediately respond to e-mail and phone requests for comment.
Read more: http://www.abqjournal.com/592005/abqnewsseeker/massive-google-test-drone-crashes-during-n-m-test-ntsb-reports.html
Solara 50 is one of the solar atmosphere satellites made by Titan Aerospace. (COURTESY TITAN AEROSPACE)
sofa king
(10,857 posts)"Massive" is the one thing that this large aircraft was not. It flew at all because it was so improbably, unbelievably lightweight for its size.
kentauros
(29,414 posts)When I first saw the headline before opening the thread, I was thinking of something on the order of Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose (H-4 Hercules)
CentralMass
(15,265 posts)BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)...like this is: "I wonder who had a hand in causing it to crash OR Verizon doesn't like this"
...and then I take the tinfoil off of my head.