Project Loon is a plan to provide free, wireless Internet access through high-altitude balloons in the stratosphere, roughly 18 to 27 kilometers (km; 60,000–90,000 feet) above the ground and more than twice the height that airplanes fly. It was developed by Google X, the high-risk research arm of Google. (After Google was reorganized in 2015, both it and Google X became subsidiaries of Alphabet, and Google X became known simply as X.) The Project Loon plan, announced in 2014, called for Google to place hundreds of solar-powered balloons at high altitude. At high altitude, the balloons would be free from storms, clouds, and flights; invisible to sight; and in a location where winds blow continuously at roughly 20 km/hour. The balloons can use solar energy ...