The DARPA Lift Challenge has set a new benchmark in vertical lift aviation. Taking place at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, the national competition concluded on Aug. 9 after teams demonstrated novel drone designs with the potential to transform vertical heavy-lift aircraft into a more accessible option for both the U.S. military and commercial industry.
AVIDrone’s aircraft flies at the DARPA Lift Challenge.Source: DARPA | Paul Flacks
The top-performing aircraft, designed by AVIDrone, Inc., pushed the limits of electric helicopter design and demonstrated an unprecedented payload-to-weight ratio of 3.84:1.
While this did not achieve the Challenge goal of a 4:1 ratio, it still represents a success by DARPA’s definition.
“We chose the target because we believed it might be possible and what we proved this week,” said Phillip “Donna” Smith, Lift Challenge program manager. “Even though we didn’t hit it in an official score, we saw the path at this competition.”
First place winner in the Objective category, AVIDrone.Source: DARPA | Paul Flacks
Continued DARPA Investment
According to DARPA Director Stephen Winchell, the technology demonstrated at the Lift Challenge is just the tip of the iceberg. In the short term, he described the Lift Challenge drones’ lifting ability as better than what’s in the market today. And for the longer term, he estimated that their innovations will proliferate throughout the entire community.
“We’re just seeing the very beginning of the transformation that this community is going to bring to the aerospace industry,” Winchell said at the Aug. 9 awards ceremony. “Every single team here, you are DARPA.”
DARPA will support further maturation of promising drone concepts through multiple Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) topics and connecting teams with investors through its Commercial Strategy Office.
These opportunities will help advance the technologies demonstrated during the Challenge and explore pathways for transition to national security and commercial applications.
Full competition results: Winners were selected based on payload and performance, as well as technical merit, innovation, and potential impact.
Objective Category
According to Challenge rules, teams that met or exceeded the challenge goal of a 4:1 ratio would earn the full prize purse for their award level, while those that came in under the target would earn half the prize purse for each place.
Subjective Category
Subjective category honorees were selected by a panel of DARPA program managers with deep aviation expertise.
Most Revolutionary Aerodynamic Design
Winner: University of Maryland Autonomous Micro Air Vehicle Team
College Park, Md. Prize. $500,000
This team’s design blended a tri-rotor into the propulsive design of a propeller-driven rotor by using servos to change blade and motor angles. Their craft takes off and lands like a multi-rotor craft and then transitions to a propeller-driven rotor once airborne.
UMD’s aircraft flies at the DARPA Lift Challenge.Source: DARPA | Paul Flacks
Most Revolutionary Powertrain Design
Winner: Portal Aircraft Company Mansfield, Texas Prize: $500,000
This team created a novel, scalable concept that uses hot or cold turbine exhaust to drive the rotors, replacing driveshafts and mechanical linkages. Their approach could provide higher reliability due to fewer mechanical components.
Most Promising Technology
Winner: DefendTex Moab, Utah Prize: $500,000
While this team’s aircraft did not complete a scored run, it achieved the highest ratio in the competition at 9.63 to 1. The aircraft uses string-based support to individual motors to reduce hub structure and overall vehicle weight. The design is simple, easy to deploy, and minimizes disk loading on each propeller.
Reinvigorating the Spirit of Aviation
The competition attracted extraordinary interest from small businesses, entrepreneurs, universities, and even high schools. DARPA received 489 applications, with 225 teams completing key technical and regulatory requirements and 132 teams invited to compete.
Watch it On-demand
To provide broad access to the competition, DARPA livestreamed flight operations throughout the event. Full daily broadcasts, recaps, team interviews, crash reels, and the awards ceremony can be found on our YouTube playlist.
Topn Photo: AVIDrone Inc., from Columbia, Md., pushed the limits of electric helicopter design to an incredible level of efficiency, setting an early competition benchmark with a 3.8:1 ratio.Source: DARPA | Paul Flacks
Source: DARPA