Loon will turn stratospheric aircraft into an Internet drone

The Hawk 30 is a drone designed to fly at altitudes of up to 20 km and is equipped with ten electric motors.

It is planned that the energy for the operation of the engines of the aircraft will receive fromThe energy of the solar panels should also be enough to operate the main systems of the aircraft.

Loon, known for developing balloons for distributing the Internet, plans to modify the Hawk 30 so that it can be used as a telecommunications pseudo-satellite.

In particular, the engineers of both companies will install an additional payload on the Hawk 30 - a rotating antenna, which is necessary for stable distribution of the LTE Internet.

Engineers note that the device will be used as a signal repeater: it is expected that it will be able to provide Internet distribution over a larger area than ground towers.

Earlier, the Japanese company HAPSMobile conducted the first flight tests of the HAWK30 pseudo-satellite - a flying wing-shaped television repeater.