Many products that get called innovative turns out to be last year’s model wearing a new finish. Caldwell’s ClayCopter Surface-to-Air is a harder case to wave off, and a panel of industry evaluators just put that in writing.
Last month, the launcher won the 2026 Frank DeSomma Innovation of the Year Award from the Industry Choice Awards. Caldwell has now claimed the award in back-to-back years.
What the ClayCopter Surface-to-Air does, in plain terms, is take the throwing machine out of your hands and set it on the ground. Introduced at SHOT Show 2026, it’s a freestanding column launcher weighing less than 10 pounds and running off a 12-volt lithium-ion battery pack rated for about 300 launches per charge. Rather than standard clays, it feeds ClayCopter targets—biodegradable spinning discs that fly nothing like a bird off a conventional trap.
Wobble and oscillation adjust independently, which means users can dial in anything from a repeatable straightaway for a new shooter to a presentation that refuses to show up the same way twice. Incoming, crossing and most of what lives between are on the menu without anyone crouched behind a trap house pulling for you.
A wireless remote with 50 feet of range comes in the box. Bluetooth and the free Caldwell Clays app push that out to 100 yards and open things up considerably, allowing a shooter to pair as many as 10 additional Surface-to-Air or Claymore Connect throwers, launch by voice command, present true pairs and build custom flurries. Built-in UV lamps inside the column charge Caldwell’s glow-in-the-dark UFO targets while they sit in the stack, which acknowledges the growing nighttime clay-target trend and perhaps the best argument yet for shooting after sundown, depending on where you land.
“The Surface-to-Air represents what we believe innovation should be—solving consumer problems, challenging the conventions of established categories, and creating entirely new experiences rather than simply incrementally improving what already exists,” said James Tayon, Caldwell’s chief product officer.
Industry awards get handed out at a pace that dulls their meaning, so the process behind this one is worth a minute. Sponsored and administered by Oneida Molded Plastics, the Industry Choice Awards put products in front of 20 to 30 evaluators drawn from inside the firearms industry, none of them affiliated with the companies entering. Judging happens in retail and range settings on fit, form and function, and Oneida holds no sway over the scoring. Call it a peer vote where the peers can’t vote for themselves.
Frank DeSomma’s name on the award will register with anyone who followed the rifle side of the industry over the past two decades. After nearly 30 years as an aerospace process engineer, DeSomma started Patriot Ordnance Factory in a Phoenix garage in 2002 and spent the next 18 years building it into one of the defining names in piston-driven AR-pattern rifles. In 2018, the POF-USA Revolution—a .308 Win.-chambered rifle built on an AR-15-size receiver set—took American Rifleman’s Golden Bullseye Award for Rifle of the Year. He also won ICA Rifle of the Year three times. DeSomma died in June 2020 at age 57 from injuries sustained in a traffic accident outside Phoenix.
Caldwell lists the ClayCopter Surface-to-Air launcher at $549.99, with the Pro Kit—launcher, carry case and a second battery pack—at $649.99. The 90 mm- and 110 mm-diameter targets are sold separately.
| Caldwell ClayCopter Surface-to-Air Launcher | |
| Type | Freestanding, ground-based ClayCopter launcher |
| Weight | Less than 10 lbs. |
| Power | Caldwell 12-volt lithium-ion battery pack, up to 300 launches per charge |
| Control | Wireless remote (50 ft.); Bluetooth via Caldwell Clays app (100 yds.) |
| Presentations | Incoming, crossing, wobble, oscillating; singles or pairs |
| Pairing | Up to 10 additional Surface-to-Air or Claymore Connect throwers |
| Targets | All ClayCopter targets, 90 mm and 110 mm; built-in UV lamps charge UFO targets |
| SKU | 1222326 (launcher); 1262976 (Pro Kit) |
| MSRP | $549.99 (launcher); $649.99 (Pro Kit) |
Learn more at caldwellshooting.com.
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