MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Project Loon, which we’ve covered previously, has now become an entity unto its self, separating from X to become a new independent business under the Alphabet umbrella. Its sister company, Wing, which is building a drone delivery system, is also becoming its own entity, according to fiercewireless.com.
“Both entities have come a long way from the days when they were considered crazy science experiments, thanks in part to years of hard work and testing in the real world,” according to the same article. Loon’s history includes an experimental pilot program in New Zealand and subsequent tests in New Zealand, California’s Central Valley and Northeast Brazil, which were used to build on the basic technology.
The Project Loon team was able to showcase its expertise last year in the US, deploying balloons over Puerto Rico to provide basic internet service after a hurricane knocked out communications.
Loon will continue to work with mobile network operators around the world to bring internet access to those currently without and Wing will continue building its drone delivery system to improve the speed, cost and environmental impact of transporting goods — along with an unmanned-traffic management platform to safely route drones through the skies, according to the same article.
Alastair Westgarth is the CEO of Loon, while James Ryan Burgess is the CEO of Wing in partnership with Adam Woodworth as Wing’s CTO.
