Lift Challenge

What’s the Challenge?

The DARPA Lift Challenge aimed to revolutionize heavy vertical lift aviation by seeking novel drone designs capable of carrying payloads more than four times their weight. This would revolutionize how we use drones across all sectors.

As military missions become more complicated, warfighters need more capable drones to use across diverse scenarios. The same applies to infrastructure inspection, package delivery, disaster response, and other civilian applications.

Current multirotor drones, also known as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), are simple, affordable, and easy to operate. But their payload-to-weight ratio is low, typically 1:1 or less.

Novel Drone Designs Lift Beyond Limits

DARPA challenges accelerate technological breakthroughs by focusing the ingenuity of teams of innovators and giving wild ideas a place to thrive.

Competitors must create an aircraft that is both lightweight and powerful – lifting at least 4x its weight while flying a 5-nautical-mile circuit course.

In a head-to-head, live performance trial, competing teams will fly their novel drone designs. Those with the highest payload-to-weight ratios and novel designs will win $6.5 million in prizes.

But it’s not just a prize competition – it's a catalyst for long-term growth and innovation across the American drone industry. Participants will play a critical role in advancing vertical lift technologies that will have far-reaching benefits for military missions and civilian needs.

DARPA Program Manager Phillip "Donna" Smith provides an overview about the DARPA Lift Challenge, which aims to shatter the heavy lift bottleneck by seeking novel drone designs that can carry payloads more than four times their weight. | 5:07