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Facebook is flying really high with its latest invention to connect all the world to the interet. On July 30 Mark Zuckerberg announced that the tech company had finished building a solar-powered, unmanned aircraft capable of flying at heights above 60,000 feet and relaying data to the earth via laser signals. The aircraft called Aquila is made of cured carbon fibre and while it has a wingspan of a Boeing 737 it weighs less than a car, the company said.

The aim is to have Aquila circle unconnected areas for up to three months at a time and beam data down into a 50 kilometer communications radius. Facebook also said it has made a breakthrough in data transmission having developed a laser that will deliver data at ten times the speed of the current state-of-the-art internet technologies.

Facebook’s announcement came hot on the heels of Google revealing its tie up with Sri Lanka for Project Loon– a network of high-altitude balloons that can hover just at the edge of space and relay data to and from the ground. Each balloon is supposed to cover the area within a 40-kilometer diameter. If Project Loon works as planned, Sri Lanka will become the first country to get universal internet coverage powered by Google.

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