teTra wins Disruptor Award at GoFly Final Fly-Off

teTra Aviation, a team from Tokyo, Japan, has won the $100,000 Pratt & Whitney Disruptor Award in the Inaugural GoFly Prize Final Fly-Off, the world's first global competition to create personal human flyers. The team, captained by Tasuku Nakai, a doctoral student at the University of Tokyo, won the award for its teTra 3 machine.

The GoFly Prize encourages creation of personal flyers as a first step toward transforming the future of transportation with flying cars, flying motorcycles, hoverboards, jetpacks, human-carrying drones, and other personal flyers. Some 854 teams comprising more than 3,800 innovators from 103 countries took up the GoFly challenge and, during the past two years have been crafting their machines and testing them as manned, mannequin-bearing, and unmanned machines.

Pratt & Whitney was an overall corporate sponsor of the GoFly Prize and provided The Disruptor Award, a $100,000 prize that recognized the team that was truly innovative, who went beyond in developing their personal flying device.

"After much anticipation, we are thrilled to announce that teTra Aviation is the winner of the Pratt & Whitney Disruptor Award," said GoFly Founder and CEO Gwen Lighter. "The team displayed the technical design and creative prowess that we set out to inspire when we created the GoFly Prize. teTra created a unique personal flyer and we look forward to supporting them as they take the next steps towards revolutionizing human mobility."

"Innovation has always been at the core of our DNA at Pratt & Whitney and we applaud GoFly's efforts to transform the industry," confirmed Geoff Hunt, senior vice president, Engineering. "We're proud to sponsor such an exceptional competition and we designed the Disruptor Award to recognize the team that challenged the status quo, delivered unique thinking into a complex issue and considered safety, reliability, durability, and system integration."

“Throughout the two years that we worked with the teams in the GoFly competition, we were impressed with the passion and commitment they had to innovate personal flight. This truly aligns with Pratt & Whitney’s 95-year history of transforming the future of aviation,” Hunt added. “Our judging panel was impressed with the grit, determination, and creativity of these innovators from across the globe who are pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Although the choice was difficult, one stood out: teTra Aviation demonstrated the spirit of innovation, disruption and perseverance to see their demonstration vehicle through the challenges of developing a revolutionary new air vehicle. In all, the event was a testament to forward-thinking and embracing innovation to power the future of aerospace and I applaud all the teams for their efforts.”

"This is beyond my imagination," Nakai said. "The whole team is glad to celebrate this achievement. Personal flying is the future of transportation and I know there will be a day when every person will be able to take off and land anywhere. On behalf of my entire team, I want to say thank you to GoFly and Pratt & Whitney."

Prior to the Final Fly-Off, held at Moffett Federal Airfield, Mountain View, California, during Leap Day, Feb. 29, 2020, 10 teams were named Phase I winners and were awarded $20,000 prizes for their concepts, while five teams were named Phase II winners and were awarded $50,000 for their prototype submissions. No team captured the Grand Prize title, but GoFly looks forward to awarding that $1 million prize in the near future.

The GoFly Prize is supported by Grand Sponsor Boeing, Disruptor Award Sponsor Pratt & Whitney, as well as more than 20 national and international aviation and innovation organizations. All teams participating in the competition also benefited from the guidance and expertise of a dedicated mentors-and-masters program.

As a sponsor, Pratt & Whitney provided mentors and lecturers to help teams around the world develop the future of flight. With curiosity as a major component in the development of next generation of engines, working with inventors from all walks of life on a project that has the potential to make a huge impact on the advancement of personal travel was a perfect fit.

Launched in September 2017, The GoFly Prize is a competition where teams leveraged recent advances in propulsion, energy, light-weight materials, and control and stability systems to make the dream of personal flight a reality. Teams built personal flying devices that can be used by anyone, anywhere.

The GoFly $1,000,000 Grand Prize is still open for all GoFly Teams. If a team thinks they have what it takes to win, contact the organizers at info@goflyprize.