Google's high-flying plan to deliver Internet access to even the most remote areas of the world using balloons isn't quite as loony as it sounds.

Project Loon this week revealed that one of its balloons managed to circumvent the globe in a record 22 days; Google initially suggested it would take 100 days to circlethe world three times, or 33 days per trip.

Starting its second lap, Loon balloon Ibis-167 also helped clock the project's 500,000th kilometer. These devices have flown through wind speeds ranging from 2 knots to 75 knots, during all four seasons of the year.

"It enjoyed a few loop-de-loops over the Pacific Ocean before heading east on the winds toward Chile and Argentina," a Project Loon Google+ post said. The balloon then made its way back toward Australia and New Zealand, from where it was initially launched.

"Along the way, it caught a ride on the Roaring Fortiesstrong west-to-east winds in the southern hemisphere that act like an Autobahn in the sky, where our balloons can quickly zoom over oceans to get to where people actually need them," the post said.

Check out the balloon's entire flight path in the image below.

Now, nine months into the project, the Loon team can better forecast trajectories in advance and has improved the wind pump that operates the balloons, allowing on-the-ground operators to change altitudes more rapidly.

"We can spend hours and hours running computer simulations, but nothing teaches us as much as actually sending the balloons up into the stratosphere during all four seasons of the year," the team said.

Among other lessons learned, it turns out two diagonal solar panels capture more sunlight than one pointed toward the sky. The more power collected, the more the batteries charge, and the longer the balloon lasts.

Just like any scientific guinea pigs, certain balloons may be brought down from the sky to allow engineers to study them and learn for future iterations.

There is no word on the Internet-beaming end of the project, which was launched to bring Web connectivity to folks in certain corners of the worldjungles, archipelagos, mountainswhere it's difficult to wire up due to location and cost.

But by flying balloons overhead, people can conceivably connect to the Interwebs without having to build a complex physical infrastructure on the ground.

Not everyone is a fan of the project, though. Microsoft founder and multi-billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said that Google's effort to provide the world with Web access isn't going to help cure malaria, for example.

Facebook, meanwhile, is taking a similar approach to Project Loon. The social network's Connectivity Lab has been developing new platforms for connectivity, including drones, thanks to a new partnership with U.K.-based Ascenta, whose five-person team worked on early versions of Zephyr, the longest-flying solar-powered unmanned aircraft.

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