The idea of unmanned balloons with a mission first floated during the American Civil War. The drone’s ancestor hovered over England in the 1930’s and was called “the Queen Bee”. It was used by British pilots for aerial target practice. But these two unmanned crafts have never scuffled with each other.

So what’s all this cyber humming about an upcoming drone VS balloon battle between Facebook and Google? Yep, it might be happening soon in a galaxy not very far away at all – ours.

The babble is that Facebook is talking with drone development giant Titan about solar-powered aircraft that can operate as high-flying hot spots. Last year Google started testing a project hailing from their wing Google X skunkworks. They call the project ‘loon balloons’.

Both web aviators have the same objective – “…to bring internet access to more remote locations from high in the sky.” And both claim an altruistic reason for bringing airborne internet access to those previously unplugged areas of the world. But maybe it’s all about marketshare – and leaving all earthbound competitors behind?

Take a look at this Wired article to get a clearer picture of this potential new atmosphere.

http://www.wired.com/2014/03/facebooks-drones-launch-race-airborne-internet/

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