According to DARPA, a new drone competition is challenging engineers to shatter the heavy-lift bottleneck. Current multirotor drones typically carry payloads equal to their own weight, but the Lift Challenge demands designs capable of hauling more than four times their weight. With six point five million dollars in prize money, teams from universities, industry, and independent innovators will compete at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, from August two through ninth. The public can attend August sixth through ninth. Winners could transform drone applications across military missions, infrastructure inspection, package delivery, and disaster response.

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