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Google’s secret team is said to be working on a project, dubbed the Project Skybender. It reportedly aims to deliver 5G wireless internet from solar drones. It is believed the same team behind the Project Loon is also involved in Skybender.

According to a report in The Guardian , the new Project Skybender may come up with a technology supporting 5G internet. The engineers working on Project Skybender are reportedly experimenting with millimetre-wave radio transmissions which are capable of transmitting data 40 times faster than 4G LTE.

Professor Jacques Rudell, faculty of electrical engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, told The Guardian that making millimeter wave work from high-flying drone “is very difficult and complex.”

Moreover, millimetre wave transmissions have a comparatively shorter range than mobile phone signals. They fade out in a short distance, around a tenth of a 4G mobile signal. And this is an issue that Google is trying to work around.

The recent report mentioned that the tech giant is apparently testing solar powered drones in Virgin Galactic's Gateway to Space terminal at Spaceport America in New Mexico. Google has also set up its own separate flight control centre at Spaceflight Operations Center. The tech giant is paying US$1,000 a day to Virgin Galactic for utilising the Gateway to Space building.

For its initial tests, Project Skybender is now using a solar powered drone called Solara 50 made by Titan Aerospace and an Optimally Piloted Aircraft (OPA) named Centaur, reports Engadget.

To carry on with the testing of solar powered drones in New Mexico, Google has acquired permission from the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC). Experiments will reportedly continue until July.

Project Skybender is supposedly a part of the Google Access team, which also includes Project Loon. Google’s Loon Project is designed to connect people in rural and remote areas through a network of floating balloons.

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