Phantom Soldiers, a team from the Knight High School in Palmdale, California, has won the 2016 Airborne Delivery Challenge and $5,000. It was a great contest but the accuracy of Phantom Soliders’ drops was incredible and they won by more than 10 points. All three of their medical packages also landed next to Outback Joe with an impact force under 75G (the requirement to gain maximum points). It seems that their innovative drop mechanism and packaging were one of the secrets of their success.

Phantom Soldiers (Winners)

In second place was rookie team, Calamvale Predators from  Calamvale Community College in Queensland. They won $2,000 for second place and an additional $2,000 for the best placed rookie team. They built their custom quad copter at school and it was built for speed. They also had a great package design and achieved a very low impact of 29G for one of their package deliveries.

Calamvale Predators (Second and Best Rookie Team)

JPV UAV from John Paul College, Daisy Hill, Queensland came third and won $1,000 with three very accurate drops from their hexacopter.

John Paul College UAV (Third)

The Insitu Pacific Airmanship Award was given to Rise Above, a team from Noosa District State High School, Queensland, who showed outstanding airmanship during the event.

Rise Above (Insitu Pacific Airmanship Award winners)

The Judges Sportsmanship Award was given to the Calamvale Hurricanes and Predators for their positive attitude and respect to their competitors.

Calamvale Predators (left) and Hurricanes (right) – Judges Sportsmanship award winner

Team photos will be posted in the coming weeks. The organisers would like to thank the teams for the great spirit in which they competed and the event sponsors for their continued support. The sponsors, supporters and organisers this year were:

Major Supporter: Queensland Government
Platinum Sponsors: Insitu Pacific | Northrop Grumman | Lockheed Martin
Gold: Boeing
Silver: Little Ripper Lifesaver | MathWorks | CASA
Bronze: LightWare Optoelectronics | Defence Science and Technology Group | Australian Robotics & Automation Association | Western Downs Regional Council
Co-organised: Queensland University of Technology’s Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation | CSIRO’s Data61

We could not run these events without this generous support and also the volunteer support of many others who commit many hours of their time to the UAV Challenge. Remember that the 2016 Medical Express Challenge takes place in Dalby next week. Follow all the action here!

Thanks to all the teams, volunteers, sponsors and organisers!