Meet the DARPA Lift Challenge teams

This August, more than 100 teams will gather at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force to attempt to achieve unprecedented payload-to-weight ratios in vertical flight.

If successful, these new designs would revolutionize heavy vertical-lift aviation, advancing the goals of the Department of War’s Drone Dominance initiative and making heavy vertical flight more economical for broader use.

This selection follows the first wave of invites and includes an additional 30+ teams. These teams’ drone designs either demonstrate the potential to lift four times their own weight and/or represent a breakthrough innovation in propulsion, power, control, aerodynamics, and systems integration.

“These aircraft range from highly refined engineering projects to radically new approaches that challenge conventional thinking about vertical lift systems,” said Phillip “Donna” Smith, Lift Challenge program manager. “This competition is about more than developing better drones; it’s about reimagining how our society thinks about aerial mobility.”

Meet the teams

Teams comprise small businesses, students, and entrepreneurs from across the United States and around the world, including participants from more than 20 countries. For team bios, visit our Meet the Teams page.

1. A. Shulenberger
2. AdlerAerospace
3. Advanced Maneuvering
4. Advanced Tactical Lift Aircraft System (ATLAS)
5. Advanced Vertical Flight Laboratory
6. Agriculture Technologies
7. AI for Positive Change Lab, Howard University
8. Airmigos
9. AKTEMI
10. Alpine Combat Systems
11. Ant Bertha
12. APRAD
13. APTOS AERO
14. Ascendant Dynamics
15. ASTRO Systems
16. Atlas (Purdue)
17. Avalon Aero
18. Avidrone Inc.
19. AXUS Lab – Aerial Experimental Unmanned Systems
20. Bastion Ascent - Team Fawkes
21. Burl Aerospace - Alpha
22. Burl Aerospace - Omega
23. BUS
24. Cactus Labs
25. Capstone AirLift Systems
26. Collaborative Heavy-lift Aerial unManned Propellor Systems
27. CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES
28. CyLift
29. Daniel Christadoss 
30. DefendTex
31. Design, Analysis and Research Corporation
32. Dmaterial
33. Driftless Robotics
34. Drone Innovations
35. Drone Power Concepts
36. Dronesmith
37. EasyBreezy Heavy Lift 
38. Energetic Flying Nuisance
39. Falcon
40. Flight-CHEK
41. FNP Foundation
42. GSE Inc.
43. Hanumantam
44. HappyHellfire Engineering
45. HiPeRLab
46. Hoarder Sam
47. Horizon
48. Hovering Owls 
49. H-Squared
50. InSky
51. Jetoptera-Project Pegasus
52. Kansas City Space Pirates 
53. Kennesaw State KWAD-IV
54. Kinetic Analytics
55. Koatlus Rise 
56. LamVec Technology
57. Leatherneck Rangers
58. MacGyver
59. Madgar Dynamics - TR1
60. MATR Technologies
61. Max Ordnance
62. MaxWeights
63. Mimino
64. Mohyi Labs
65. MTech Operations LLC
66. NDDrone
67. NELSON Lift
68. Nimbus
69. Novakinetics Aerosystems
70. Oklahoma Aerospace Institute for Research and Education
71. Onopa Aero
72. optimAero
73. Orion Autonomous Systems
74. O-Wing
75. Paracopter
76. Penn State Applied Research Lab
77. Penumbra
78. Phoenix Drone LLC
79. Portal Aircraft Company
80. Power & Propulsion
81. ProtoCarbon
82. Quadzilla
83. Quarry Hill Aero
84. Rapid Ascent Innovations Lab
85. Ratio Drones TX
86. Reasonably Adequate 
87. Red Snow
88. RockSolid Team 2
89. Roll-ups
90. Samara
91. Sherman Aeronautics
92. Skybarge II
93. Skyweaver
94. Snyder LaPenna Composites
95. Somewhat Engineering
96. Spector Drones
97. Spin Flight
98. Spitfire Defense
99. Squishy Tech
100. Stanford OHS UAV's
101. Stoner Aero
102. Strato Crane
103. Systems For Weight-Optimized Lift (S.W.O.L.)
104. Tactical Intelligent Transport for Autonomous Aerial Logistics
105. Tam Air DARPA Lift Project
106. Tarleton State University TexanDrone
107. Team ATLAS
108. Team Chewy
109. Team Mammoth Drones
110. Texas Longhorn Ops Flight Team
111. The Tarawa Duck
112. Triangle Formation 
113. TULOY
114. ULTRACOPTER
115. UMD Autonomous Micro Air Vehicle DLC Team
116. Vertical‑Open‑air Retrieval Transport Experimental X Team
117. VertSolve
118. Virginia Tech DARPA Lift Team
119. Vision One
120. Vitruvius
121. What the Heli
122. Winging It 
123. Xtreme Aerial Concepts
124. YGGY Aviation

A national competition for novel drone designs

The Lift Challenge will take place at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, from Aug. 2-9, 2026.

During the event week, competitors will fly their drones in a five-nautical-mile circuit course in a head-to-head, live performance trial. Those with the highest payload-to-weight ratios and the most novel designs will win up to $6.5 million in prizes.

The four days of Challenge finals, held Aug. 6-9, are open to the public from 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. ET daily. Spectators should register in advance as attendance is limited.

Register to attend

DARPA will also livestream the competition on YouTube starting Aug. 3 through the awards ceremony on Aug. 9.

The Lift Challenge coincides with Flite Fest¹, a popular radio-control (RC) aviation event that offers camping sites and RV parking.