Alphabet Inc. is graduating two of the more daring projects that have been incubating at its X research group into independent businesses, signaling an intent to pursue the initiatives more seriously.

Loon, the first new division, is building high-altitude internet balloons (pictured) that are essentially inflatable cellular towers designed to float in the stratosphere. The other project is called Wing and has focused on developing a drone delivery system.

“X’s job is to create radical new technologies and build a bridge from an idea to a proven concept,” Astro Teller, the head of the research group, wrote in a Medium post today. “Now that the foundational technology for these projects is built, Loon and Wing are ready to take their products into the world; this is work best done outside of the prototyping-focused environment of X.”

A big part of why Alphabet believes that the projects are ready to graduate from the lab is that they’ve both undergone extensive testing in the field. On the Loon website, the company claims that its balloons have flown more than 18 million miles in test files and demonstrated the ability to communicate with one another over distances as large as 62 miles. Alphabet used Loon to restore basic internet access for 250,000 people in Puerto Rico after last year’s hurricane.

On the long term, the group’s goal is to extend internet connectivity to parts of the world that lack reliable networking infrastructure. The newly minted Alphabet division has already started making concrete progress towards that goal. Just this morning, a Kenyan government official told Reuters that the African nation will partner with Loon on a project to bring more of its rural population online.

Wing is making progress as well. The group has been carrying out drone flights in Australia for four years now, delivering items as assorted as medicine and dog treats to rural locations. Alphabet claims its drones can fly up at altitudes as high as 400 feet with the help of software that can steer clear of other aircraft when they come too close.

Loon and Wing bring the number of projects that have graduated from X  to five. They join Waymo, the heavily funded Verily life sciences division and Chronicle, a business that formed in January to harness machine learning for detecting cyberthreats. Alphabet groups these units under the “Other Bets” in its earnings report, which accounted for revenues of $150 million and a $571 million operating loss last quarter.

The company’s two newest X divisions will continue to operate under their current leadership. Loon project lead Alastair Westgarth has been named as the group’s chief executive, while Wing co-leads James Burgess and Adam Woodworth will now assume the roles of CEO and chief technology officer, respectively.

Photo: Alphabet