Competition Awards $320k to Eight Prototype Winners Ahead of Final Fly-Off

The GoAERO Prize is getting ready to enter its home stretch, naming the eight new prototype winners that are now one step closer to flying their emergency-response aircraft at NASA Ames in 2027. The organization is handing out $320,000 across the teams, assisting the transition from early concepts to real, flying hardware.

Participating teams from the US, Europe, and the U.K. have spent the year since the competition opened turning their CAD files and napkin sketches into machines that can carry out autonomous rescue missions. NASA, RTX, Honeywell, and more than two dozen partners are behind the $1.65 million effort, hoping that a new class of “Emergency Response Flyers” will fill the gap between traditional aircraft and slow, congested ground rescue.

The project comes at a time when we are seeing Texas floods, California wildfires, historic hurricanes in Jamaica, massive earthquakes in Russia’s Kamchatka region, and smashed heat records across the globe. At the same time, stretched federal disaster budgets and road congestion have caused slips in EMS response times. According to GoAERO, this situation means that the need to invest in autonomous rescue technology has never been more obvious.

“The GoAERO aircraft are needed now more than ever,” said Gwen Lighter, GoAERO Founder and CEO. “GoAERO was founded to create both the transformative flight technologies that save lives, and the collaborative network across industry, government, and first responder organizations to ensure the safe and effective future deployment of these emergency response aircraft.”

So far, a total of 201 teams from 85 countries have gotten involved in the competition. Since winning earlier stages isn’t required to stay in the running, and new teams can join at any point, Stage 3 will likely be even larger. The Final Fly-Off at NASA Ames in 2027 will test how these flyers handle adversity, maneuvering, and real-world mission loads, with a $1.65 million prize waiting on the other side of the finish line.

Organizers are planning a multi-day festival around the fly-off, complete with team pavilions, demonstrations, and plenty of attention from regulators, investors, and the interested public.

FMI: www.goaeroprize.com