Two of Google X’s futuristic development projects, its Project Loon and Project Wing have been spun off by Google’s parent company (Alphabet) as standalone businesses although remaining as part of the Alphabet family.

Loon envisages a fleet of giant balloons floating in the stratosphere (at 18-25 kms high) to connect remote and underserved locations below with internet and broadband connectivity.

Loon’s balloons were used successfully following the devasting Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last autumn. Loon was formed in 2013, and its balloons ‘steer’ themselves and maintain power from solar panels.  Each is designed to last around 100 days in the high atmosphere, and use transceivers to connect to and from the ground.

Loon will be run by Alastair Westgarth, who has supervised the project for the past year or so.

Wing sees a low cost, environmentally friendly, drone delivery service. The US Dept. of Transportation has selected Wing as one of 10 schemes it considers worth pursuing in its Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Programme.

Other posts by :

1. Musk delays Moon landing until 2027
2. Hughes Satellite facing cash crunch
3. Major banks support AST SpaceMobile
4. Fitch downgrades DirecTV debt
5. BBC: You’ll miss me when I’m gone
6. Some new US Starlink subs face $1,000 start-up fee
7. Project Kuiper beating OneWeb
8. OQ Tech gets Luxembourg 5G-by-Sat concession
9. Roskosmos: Heads roll, launch project scrapped

Categories: Articles, Broadband, Satellite