Air Force Museum Hosts High-Stakes Drone Competition With $6.5m in Prizes
Some will crash. Some may never get off the ground.
But over four days starting Thursday, Aug. 6, at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, more than 90 teams will attempt to prove that drones can do something many in aviation once considered impossible: carry loads four times their own weight over miles of flight.
The teams are competing for pride and $6.5 million in total prize money.
Want to see drones do things you didn’t know drones could do?
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Lift Challenge will be held at the Air Force Museum through Sunday, Aug. 9.
The contestants have built drones to not only lift four times their weight — typically, drones are capable of lifting just a fraction of their weight — but to haul that load over an outdoor course.
A twisty, turning outdoor course.
“We are going to try to do things that people have said are impossible in aviation,” said Phillip Smith, a DARPA program manager who is overseeing the event.
Contestants will fly — or try to fly — back and forth for four miles, with their craft loaded, Smith said. They’ll land on a landing pad, take the weight off and fly another mile unloaded.
The craft will be expected to maneuver. That’s hard in aviation. The craft need to do more than pick something up and carry it a few feet. They need to shift left, right, move around, drop off the load and return.
“We can actually evaluate designs and concepts that will work in a military and civilian market,” Smith said in an interview Friday July 31.
“This is all for just the pure engineering, innovation spirit,” he added. “And that’s awesome to see.”
For four days, visitors at the free event can watch engineers and competitors from across the country test drone designs capable of hauling payloads far heavier than today’s aircraft of similar size.
Competitors will hail from companies new and established, universities and independent inventors.
What’s military use case here?
“Many use cases,” Smith said. Such as picking up cargo, weapons and people.
“This is 100% dual use,” he said. “If we make a breakthrough here, yes, we will have a better military capability. But it immediately translates over to the civilian market.”
Two large Jumbotron video screens on museum grounds are expected to be on site with coverage from live commentators.
Also part of the planned events, visitors can also expect Flite Fest, billed as one of the nation’s premier radio-control aviation events featuring flying demonstrations, giant-scale model aircraft, STEM activities, a build tent and more.
“Big family-friendly environment,” Smith said. “We have STEM tents, we have build tents for drones. They’ll train you how to build fly a drone.
“Then you can go out and fly yours and crash it, repair it, do it all over again,” he added with a smile.
As with any outdoor event, this one is weather-dependent. Excessive wind can ground the drones. Smith advises those attending to consider a morning visit, when high winds may be less likely.
What: DARPA Lift Challenge When: 8:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. Aug. 6 to 9. The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week. Admission and parking: Free for spectators. Where: Museum grounds are off Springfield Street at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base gate 28B in Riverside. The museum says: Non-participants are not permitted to fly personal drones.
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