The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, will host the DARPA Lift Challenge and Flite Fest from Aug. 6-9, bringing experimental unmanned aircraft, radio-controlled flying demonstrations, and hands-on STEM activities to the museum grounds in Dayton, Ohio. More than 100 teams from startups, aerospace companies, universities, and independent inventors are expected to take part in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) competition. A total of $6.5 million in prize money is at stake as teams attempt to demonstrate advances in vertical-lift technology. The challenge focuses on improving an aircraft’s payload-to-weight ratio, or how much weight it can carry compared with the weight of the aircraft itself. Competitors will attempt to fly unmanned aircraft weighing no more than 55 pounds while carrying four times their own weight, potentially 220 pounds or more. According to organizers, such a feat has never been accomplished in the history of vertical-lift aviation.
Visitors will be able to watch the competition from designated spectator areas. Video captured along the course will also be shown on large screens. Running alongside the DARPA competition will be Flite Fest, a gathering of the radio-control aviation community. The event will feature flying demonstrations, build tents, STEM activities, and opportunities to meet pilots, aircraft builders, and other aviation enthusiasts from around the country. “The Museum’s mission is to inspire and educate about air and space,” said David Tillotson III, director of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. “The DARPA Lift Challenge fits that education mission. It also encourages people to visit the Museum and learn more about the broader story of air and space.”
(Image credit: National Museum of the USAF)
The event also draws on the Dayton area’s long association with aviation research and development. The museum is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where Wright Field served for decades as an Army aviation development center. “Wright Field served as the Army’s aviation development center for decades,” Tillotson said. “Hosting the DARPA Lift Challenge here continues that tradition of aviation innovation.” Inside the museum, visitors can explore more than 350 aerospace vehicles and missiles tracing the development of military aviation. The Research and Development Gallery and other exhibits also contain aircraft and technologies associated with DARPA programs.
“The aircraft you’ll see in this competition range from highly refined engineering projects to radically new approaches that challenge conventional thinking about vertical lift systems,” said Phillip “Donna” Smith, DARPA Lift Challenge program manager. “This competition is about more than developing better drones; it’s about reimagining how our society thinks about aerial mobility.” Admission to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is free. Public viewing of the DARPA Lift Challenge and spectator admission to Flite Fest are also free. For more information, and to support the National Museum of the USAF, click on this link: www.nationalmuseum.af.mil.
