Building the Future: GoAERO Announces Stage 2 Prototype Winners

Congratulations to all our innovators and teams for completing Stage 2 of the GoAERO competition! We have witnessed remarkable technical progress as teams transformed their concepts into flying prototypes, and we are thrilled to announce our Stage 2 winners.

Here are the 8 winners of stage 2 (in alphabetical order):

The winners are:

• CraneAERO (Cranfield, United Kingdom)

• Elevate (Delft, The Netherlands)

• Harmony (Texas, USA)

• HORYZN (Munich, Germany)

• LIFT + UT Austin / Texas Aerial Robotics (Texas, USA)

• Rescue Pack (North Carolina, USA)

• Soteria Flight Technologies (Pennsylvania, USA)

• VSDDL (Alabama, USA)

With the award of the Stage 2 prizes, we are excited to look ahead to the Final Fly-Off at NASA Ames in 2027. Teams will demonstrate their capabilities in real-world emergency response scenarios, competing for $1.65 million in prizes. 

At the Fly Off, Teams will fly through the Adversity, Maneuverability, and Productivity Missions— and teams may choose to fly one, two, or all of the missions.  

The Fly-Off will be a multi-day festival of aviation and innovation featuring Team Mission flying, an airshow, Team tents for all competing teams, global press and publicity, VIP receptions, interaction with sponsors, regulators, and investors, and the crowning of all prize winners.

And remember, you do NOT need to win a Stage 2 prize, or to have participated in Stage 2, in order to compete in the Fly-Off.  The competition welcomes innovators at every stage!

GoAERO is proud to support all our innovators and teams throughout this journey. We have partnered with industry leaders to provide our Fly-Off Teams with access to valuable benefits, including one-on-one mentoring with seasoned technical experts, FAA liaisons to help each team define its certification pathway and provide support along the way, and continued software, insurance, and hardware benefits, among many others.

We are here to support you— and we welcome the opportunity to set up individual calls with your team to discuss how we can help you reach the Fly-Off.  Please reach out to us at info@GoAEROprize.com. 

We can’t wait to see what you all create!

Ready. Set. GoAERO!