Facebook tried and failed.

Google also tried it and ultimately waved it off.

Now the British defense and aviation group BAE Systems is setting out to develop a new type of drone.

It should not only fly higher, further and longer than any other flight object of its kind, but also be a central component for the communication networks of the future.

In the coming weeks, the unmanned high-flyer will start a new round of tests.

It should be ready for the market in 2025.

Stephan Finsterbusch

Editor in business.

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    The British call the super drone "Phasa-35 UAV" and it is equipped with plenty of solar cells, batteries and electric motors. It hardly moves faster than a cyclist, is fed with sunlight and has a small ecological footprint. Above all, however, it should be able to fly 21,000 meters above the earth's surface and for more than 12 months without a stopover. That should make it a high flyer in a class of its own.

    Their abilities predestine them to replace satellites.

    So she could stir up a few markets and make visionaries like Elon Musk thick lines by calculating a fee-based high-performance Internet out of space.

    Because the BAE drone does its laps not only for espionage purposes at lofty heights.

    It could also be used by delivery and logistics companies;

    could serve companies and organizations specializing in the collection of weather and climate data;

    would give rescue services, border guards and environmental risk analysts insights and overviews.

    The internet from heaven

    Equipped with the appropriate devices, "Phasa-35" can be used to create geospatial maps in 3D format, offer temporary internet services and, at times, establish communication networks that go far beyond the latest 5G industry standard. The drone would have to position itself like a router. That would let them distribute signals from the sky to remote regions. But for this it would have to be connected to the earthly network itself. As seamlessly and broadly as possible. Lasers make this possible today.

    The technology group Google already had the Internet from the sky in its sights in 2010 with its balloon project “Loon”.

    In 2012 it was announced full-bodied and meekly discontinued in 2020.

    Gone with the wind, buried by the board.

    Replacing balloons with drones was considered briefly, but then discarded.

    Facebook also looked up when it wanted to see its vision of the network of the future.

    In 2014, the group announced in its “Project Connectivity” that it would use drones as flying routers.

    But the flying crates didn't last long enough.

    The business model was shaky, the outlook bleak.

    In 2018, the project was ended with one stroke.

    When Facebook buried its plans

    Internet pioneer Elon Musk did not even rely on balloons or drones for his sky-storming Internet plans in 2015; he immediately had satellites in his sights. He set up a company, called his company "Starlink" and planned to shoot a whole swarm into space. A satellite-based internet. It is said to be based on more than 30,000 individual artificial satellites and cost at least 10 billion dollars. The first satellites were launched in May 2019. To bring back the expenses, Musk envisions a paid internet.

    In the same year that Facebook buried its plans and Musk turned his visions into action, the engineers at BAE Systems began working on their giant drone. The group got reinforcements and cooperated with the aviation start-up Prismatic. In 2018, BAE tied the partner tightly to itself through a share purchase. In 2020, the engineers pushed the first drone out of the workshop, brought it to Australia and had it take off on its maiden flight from the air force base in Woomera. Everything went well.

    The next development steps have been taken. This summer, the BAE drone will penetrate into the middle layer of the stratosphere from an airfield in the USA. The conditions in the second layer of the earth's atmosphere are quite complicated, as the air there is very dry and its temperature increases with increasing altitude. Therefore, special materials had to be used to build the drone: ultra-thin and interwoven carbon fibers, solar cells with high efficiency.

    The electricity generated from the sun's rays supplies the motors of the unmanned aircraft with electrical energy during the day and recharges the batteries for the flight in the dark. At 150 kilograms all in all, the drone weighs no more than a Japanese sumo wrestler, can carry 15 kilograms of camera, sensor and communication equipment and at 35 meters has the wingspan of a Boeing 737. If everything goes well further, according to BAE Systems will begin mass production in 2025.