Google closed the project to create a global Internet coverage using drones

Google turned the work on the Titan pilot project, which planned to provide Internet coverage around the world using solar-powered drones, Business Insider reports .

The developer of the concept and the drones themselves, Titan Aerospace, was bought by Google in 2014, and transferred to the Innovation Department X at the end of 2015 due to the creation of the Alphabet holding and the restructuring of the company. The plans of Titan was the creation of solar-powered drones that could solve many problems: from distributing the Internet, to aerial photography and information support during natural disasters, but now Division X is rolling out the work on drones.

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After the restructuring within Google , the creation of the Alphabet holding and the subsequent transfer of the project to department X, Titan was merged with another project to create flying vehicles for the delivery of cargo - Project Wings. After that, the developers started having problems.

The problems with the wing of the device and the improper assembly of the drones, which were supposed to hand out 5G-Internet, led to the fact that in early 2016, the feasibility of the Titan project was discussed.

Titan's closing was preceded by information from Bloomberg that Alphabet plans to sell its Terra Bella project, which provides satellite and aerial photography services. According to Jacqueline Miller, a Google representative, the Titan team was transferred to work on another related project of the X project for creating balloons Project Loon .

“At this stage, the economic feasibility and technical feasibility of the Loon project seems to be the most realistic way to ensure access to the Internet in rural and remote regions. Many members of the Titan team are now using their knowledge and experience as part of other flight projects of Division X, including Project Loon and Project Wing, ”said Miller.

Titan is not the first major project, the feasibility of which has been revised. So, in the fall of 2016, Google Fiber staff was reduced by 9%, and the development of the network was frozen in 11 cities.