Capstone Aerospace organized a team, Capstone Air Lift Systems, that capped off a six-month engineering sprint by placing 7th out of 76 finalist teams at the DARPA Lift Challenge, held in Dayton, Ohio from August 1–9, 2026.

The team was one of a select group to advance from a field of more than 500 applicants nationwide, earning a spot in the finals after a competitive selection process. From there, the real work began: roughly six months to design, build, and test a drone capable of lifting four times its own weight and carrying that payload over a distance of four miles.

Built entirely from scratch, the aircraft went through several rounds of iteration before the team landed on a design that balanced two competing demands - a light enough airframe to maximize lift-to-weight performance, without sacrificing the structural strength and power needed to carry a heavy payload across distance. That balance became the core engineering challenge of the project, driving countless design revisions, component swaps, and test flights in the months leading up to Dayton.

Competing against startups, universities, and established aerospace companies, and demonstrating a 3.48:1 lift-to-weight ratio, Capstone Air Lift Systems' 7th-place finish among 76 finalist teams stands as a strong result for a team built from the ground up specifically for this challenge. 

"We're incredibly proud of what this team pulled off in six months," said Ilia Artemidze, the team lead. "We didn't just want to compete — we wanted to build something genuinely competitive, and finishing in the top 10 out of 76 finalist teams shows that approach worked."

The team credits the result to close collaboration across every part of the build, from airframe design and propulsion to testing and logistics, along with the support of everyone who backed the project along the way.

Capstone Aerospace plans to build on the lessons from Dayton as it looks ahead to future competitions and continued development of its lift platform.