Facebook Inc. has conducted a second test flight of its enormous solar-powered drone, Aquila, and unlike the first test flight, this time the drone made it all the way to its landing pad.

With a wingspan roughly equivalent to a Boeing 737, Aquila is designed to fly at altitudes of 60,000 to 90,000 feet for up to 90 days without ever landing. The purpose of the drone is to beam Internet access to remote areas that do not have the infrastructure to support connectivity.

While the drone made it off the ground the first time, it only flew for a period of about 90 minutes before sustaining a “structural failure,” which the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board classified as a crash. Facebook did not confirm the crash until several months later when the NTSB completed its investigation. That probe concluded that sudden high winds caused the drone’s autopilot to adjust its altitude too quickly, causing “more bending and torsion than the structure could tolerate, resulting in a downward deformation and failure of the right wing.”

Martin Luis Gomez, director of aeronautical platforms at Facebook, said in a blog post Thursday that the company learned from failure that occurred during the first test flight and made a number of adjustments to the aircraft to make it more stable. These changes include adding new spoilers to the wings, as well as adding new sensors, autopilot software and integrated radios. Facebook also added a smoother finish to the exterior of the drone and installed a horizontal propeller stopping mechanism to allow it to land safely.

During its second test, Aquila slowly climbed to an altitude of 3,000 feet while moving at speeds between 10 to 15 miles per hour when moving upwind. Gomez admitted that “Aquila does nothing fast,” but he explained that this is intentional. “We designed Aquila this way because it is meant to stay in the same area for long periods of time to supply Internet access,” he said. “Aquila is solar-powered and extremely power-efficient —- running on the power equivalent of three blow dryers.”

Aquila flew for a total of an hour and 46 minutes before successfully reaching its landing pad.

“Needless to say, the entire team was thrilled with these results,” said Gomez. “Connecting people through high-altitude solar-powered aircraft is an audacious goal, but milestones like this flight make the months of hard work worth it. And what is particularly gratifying is that the improvements we implemented based on Aquila’s performance during its first test flight made a significant difference in this flight.”

Photo: Facebook