Night side of Earth from orbit
VONOA

Research projects SI souls The lift

The lift

The challenge is public. The design is not.

A research page for the Earth Lift Challenge. Unfinished: nothing here has flown. The rules below are the challenge, not a measurement of a vehicle.

Aircraft at most 55 lb, payload at least 220 lb, course 10 nautical miles.

The box

≤ 55 lbAircraft
≥ 220 lbPayload
10 NMCourse

These three lines are the published challenge. They are not a description of a vehicle.

The aircraft is at most 55 pounds. The payload is at least 220 pounds, shown as four blocks of 55 pounds.
The aircraft is one block of at most 55 lb. The payload is at least four of those blocks, 220 lb.
A 10 nautical mile course: 8 nautical miles loaded, then 2 nautical miles unloaded.
The course is 10 nautical miles. Eight are flown with the payload, then two without it. That split is DARPA’s published 2028 course. The drawing is not a map.

How hard

The published box is a hard lift. VONOA reads it as doable. The mark is that reading. It is not a measurement of a vehicle.

≤ 1× Familiar ≥ 4× The box
Hard, and doable. A common multirotor, by DARPA’s account, lifts about its own weight. The 2028 box asks for a payload at least four times the aircraft, on a course twice the 2026 length. Nothing here has flown.

The plan

From the start of this research to the next competition. Marks after today are the plan. Nothing on this page has flown.

  1. Challenge announced

    DARPA publishes the Lift Challenge.

  2. First competition

    The first competition was held on a 5 nautical mile course. VONOA did not participate.

  3. Research begins

    VONOA research begins. It runs through the next year.

  4. Team and framework

    Work starts on a team and a framework.

  5. Material testing

    Material testing starts and runs together with the research through 2027.

  6. First flight

    The target for a first flight. This is a plan, not a flight claim.

  7. Competition

    The next Lift Challenge. DARPA has published summer 2028, and has not published a calendar day. The course on this page is 10 nautical miles.

The November 2025 announcement and the summer 2028 return are DARPA’s published dates.

What stays off this page

Structure, propulsion, packing, and the ground-test figures are the design record. That record is not published here. Reading it requires authorization.

Unfinished. This page has no sign-in, and it does not link to a design file.

Ground before air

Unfinished. The first flight on this plan is the start of 2028. This page does not publish a weight, a thrust figure, or a packed volume.

Next: continuity, where the earlier hardware still sits in the record.