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Lift Challenge

39 points by mhb

by bob1029

4 subcomments

> 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.
I'd make it 50NM. 5 is way too easy to bullshit with edge case engineering. Alternatively, set a minimum payload capacity of something like 100kg.

by stratosgear

0 subcomment

by childintime

0 subcomment

CATL is working on 12000 Wh/kg air batteries, they will solve this problem, give them the prize.

by sysreq_

4 subcomments

Been working this for a few months now. It’s not a crazy hard problem - but it does break the mold of distance and speed taking priority over capacity. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I can get into the pros/cons of all the various options and tuning knobs.

0 subcomment

by emsign

1 subcomments

The military is waking up to the need to adapt frontline logistics. With killrates of 90% for traditional trucks in the Ukraine war, without resupply missions by UAVs/UGVs holding positions is impossible now.

by jauntywundrkind

3 subcomments

This is being announced to us or everyone right now? It's only around 10 weeks away: that seems surprisingly close. Have some folk already been made aware & have they had time to build for this DARPA Challenges? Generally I think of them as longer running challenges.

by uberex

3 subcomments

by brador

2 subcomments

Really just a battery challenge.
Possibly against laws of physics at energy density of 4x?

by Schlagbohrer

0 subcomment

by dang

3 subcomments