Google solar-powered plane crashed in New Mexico

Google’s solar-powered plane didn’t stay up too long in the air as it crashed a bit after takeoff. According to Bloomberg Business, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating this incident. Thankfully, no one was hurt in the incident, which happened on May 1^st at a private airfield outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Titan Aerospace, Google’s recently acquired company, built the 50-meter-wide drone. It’s part of the tech giant’s plan to boost global Internet connectivity using stratospheric drones. Google spokeswoman Courtney Hohne told Bloomberg, "Although our prototype plane went down during a recent test, we remain optimistic about the potential of solar-powered planes to help deliver connectivity."

Source: Bloomberg Business | Via: Engadget

Amazon CEO demos delivery drones, promises delivery within half an hour

In a recent interview for a 60 Minutes segment, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos showed off the Amazon Prime Air drone, which is said to deliver packages weighing up to five pounds to locations in a 10-mile radius of Amazon fulfillment centers within 30 minutes. Now, we just have to wait for the company to figure out regulations and how to prevent the packages from falling onto your head before this hopefully lands on our shores and change package delivery industry as we speak.

The service is expected to be in testing for a number of years before it will be deployed and only in arease that are close to an Amazon depot. The stroke of marketing genius here has to be credited to Bezos, who timed this 'announcement' right smack in the middle of the Black Friday sales spike, traditionally Amazon's busiest and most profitablet time.

Source: The Verge