drones

Where Loon relied on balloons, however, the newer project utilizes Zephyr solar-powered drones. “[Loon] got really good customer engagement,” AALTO CEO Samer Halawi told TechCrunch in a sit-down interview last week at Mobile World Congress. Airbus acquired the technology for the fixed-wing drones from U.K. Ministry of Defence and Space spinoff QinetiQ in 2022. Every six months or so, the system will land for a battery swap, as these still have a limited shelf life. Like Loon before it, the company is also exploring temporary deployment for downed cell towers following natural disasters.