Frank Haley of KDAZ AM730 news reports: One of Google’s Titan Aerospace-built Solar drones crashed this month east of Albuquerque.
The National Transportation Safety Board, confirmed the drone crashed on May 1. No one was injured.
The drone crashed near Otto — a small town in Torrance County.
The goal is to create Internet hot spots in the sky that can be used to connect rural areas to the Web. The planes’ solar panels can power both the engines on the aircraft and an Internet sender/receiver device, much like a cell phone tower — but in the sky at 65,000 feet.
The planes have been under development for several years.
The NTSB does not usually investigate drone crashes. But in this case the plane that crashed weighed more than 300 pounds and there was severe damage to the vehicle.
