DARPA Lift Challenge winner achieves a 3.84:1 payload-to-weight ratio with a purpose-built 29-pound aircraft By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill A Canadian drone company has won a contest sponsored by a U.S. Department of Defense agency, by almost reaching a milestone that’s been compared to the first human breaking a supposed physical barrier by running a four-minute … [Read more...] about Avidrone Pushes Heavy-Lift Drone Performance Toward the 4:1 Barrier
DARPA
DARPA Launches $6.5 Million Challenge to Reinvent Heavy-Lift Drones
DARPA challenges innovators to create muscular drones By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill Heavy-lift drones, the workhorses of the drone ecosystem, face a significant obstacle to their widespread adoption for military and commercial uses: their payload-to-weight ratio is low, typically far below one-to-one for multirotor UAVs. Hoping to solve this problem, the Defense … [Read more...] about DARPA Launches $6.5 Million Challenge to Reinvent Heavy-Lift Drones
Laminar-Flow Drone From Otto Aerospace Clears Flight-Test Campaign for DARPA
The Fort Worth aeronautics company validates its low-drag airframe at Spaceport America in support of DARPA's Energy Web Aircraft program. Otto Aerospace has completed a flight-test campaign for its unmanned laminar-flow drone at Spaceport America in New Mexico. The company announced the milestone on May 6, 2026, from White Sands Missile Range. The campaign validated the … [Read more...] about Laminar-Flow Drone From Otto Aerospace Clears Flight-Test Campaign for DARPA
How Drone Swarms May Save Urban Warriors
In the future of urban warfare, swarms of autonomous drones and ground vehicles will win battles before they even begin. DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program recently tested a swarm of 250 unmanned vehicles in a mock city at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center in Mississippi. The test simulates an urban raid. Researchers can then study how swarm … [Read more...] about How Drone Swarms May Save Urban Warriors
DARPA Tests Deploy Swarm Drones to Control City Blocks
The Pentagon’s top think-tank is thinking up a new way to secure urban objectives – it’s all in the drone swarm. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched a new field experiment in the OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program. Teams of autonomous air and ground robots tested tactics on a mission to “isolate an urban objective” (translation – cut … [Read more...] about DARPA Tests Deploy Swarm Drones to Control City Blocks
