Google’s Loon and Wing are real Alphabet companies now

Another pair of Google’s “moonshots” is graduating from the experimental stage into full-fledged companies.

Loon is a series of high-flying balloons that beam internet service down to underserved areas. Wing is a fleet of unmanned, environmentally friendly aircraft that deliver goods.

The two projects were part of the Google X innovation initiative. But as of today, they are freestanding “Other Bets” companies under the Alphabet umbrella.

Loon and Wing are following the same path taken by the self-driving car company Waymo, which also got its start inside Google X.

“Loon will work with mobile network operators globally to bring internet access to unconnected and underconnected people around the world,” Google X’s Astro Teller writes in a Medium post today. “Wing is building a drone delivery system to improve the speed, cost, and environmental impact of transporting goods, and an unmanned-traffic management platform to safely route drones through our skies.”

Today’s announcement comes just a couple of weeks after Facebook announced it was shuttering its own Aquila drone program, which lasered internet service down to rural and underserved areas around the world.