Facebook makes solar airplane design tools open source

Facebook has released proprietary software that can be used for the design of solar aircraft, aka High Altitude Long Endurance or HAPS aircraft. The release follows the announcement that the company will discontinue its own Aquila drone.

In a statement, the company wrote that the publication aims to help the rest of the HAPS community make optimizations during the design process. The framework developed in Matlab, which can now be found on GitHub, should make it possible to quickly arrive at a design. It makes use of, among other things, physical models. For example, it must be possible to take aerodynamics into account.

According to Facebook’s description, the software should be especially useful at an early stage of the design process, for example by providing recommendations for the optimal size of an aircraft based on the latitude at which it should operate. For example, there is a difference whether you make an aircraft with a single or a double tail, because the latter variant is heavier but also offers more stability.

Facebook announced in June that it would stop developing its own aircraft, including the Aquila drone, which was to provide internet access from the air. It does want to continue working with partners such as Airbus on systems for aircraft that provide remote areas with an internet connection from great heights.