Texas A&M Drone Prototype Achieves Record Lift-to-Weight Ratio in DARPA Challenge

By Kaif Shaikh · Interesting Engineering · 2026-09-30

Texas A&M Drone Prototype Achieves Record Lift-to-Weight Ratio in DARPA Challenge

According to reporting from Interesting Engineering, a student group at Texas A&M University successfully flew a 50-pound drone carrying 110 pounds of barbell weights. The carbon-fiber multirotor completed a four-mile course in 12 minutes, making it one of only six teams to finis

According to reporting from Interesting Engineering, a student group at Texas A&M University successfully flew a 50-pound drone carrying 110 pounds of barbell weights. The carbon-fiber multirotor completed a four-mile course in 12 minutes, making it one of only six teams to finis