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 Google’s 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, didn’t 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)
= new reply since forum marked as read
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)
