Fixed-wing drones: the evolution of the technology
Over the past seven years, a massive shift has been taking place as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) use expanded beyond the military sector into commercial use. This shift began as multirotor drones opened professionals across industries to the possibility of gathering imagery and location data in a way, and at a speed, they had never done before.
Yet as much as multirotors showed promise for surveying, they quickly presented a glass ceiling to users—using up so much power to stay aloft that they couldn’t handle large projects.
Multirotors, like the DJI Phantom, remain useful on smaller projects and for applications requiring hover functionality for imagery.
But in cases of large mine sites, road projects, massive agricultural applications and city planning, customers searched for a system upgrade as a means to avoid so many battery swaps and so much time in the field.
Drone developers anticipated this, and had a solution ready: the fixed-wing survey drone.
How multirotor and fixed-wing drone lift differs
Because they are constantly in a hover mode, multirotors use large amounts of energy just to stay aloft, so they move slower when capturing imagery and are unable to fly for long durations. Fixed-wing UAVs require much less energy in cruise mode as they capture data. This is thanks to their wings, which encourages a passive lift, so they cover more ground, faster.
Fixed-wing drone advantages and rise to prominence
The secret to fixed-wing success has been its design. Whereas a multirotor constantly sucks loads of power from the battery to spin its propellers enough to generate lift, a fixed-wing only requires the energy needed to propel it forward. The lift of the aircraft is generated passively as its wings cut through the air at a specific angle. What this means is that these systems can fly much longer and cover much more ground than multirotors.
So leading fixed-wing producers, like Parrot and Delair, came up with fixed-wing solutions like the (2017-discontinued) Parrot Disco, the (Parrot) SenseFly eBee (2013-present) and eBee X (2019-present); and the Delair UX11 (2018-present). All of these were relatively compact and hand launchable, offering far more coverage than a multirotor in a single flight. No landing gear is required as they glide down to land on their belly.
A common launch option for classical fixed-wing drones, hand-launching gives an easy feel to operations yet involves some coordination and respect to avoid the blades of the drone.
Since fixed-wings were previously the only possibility for large-area coverage with reasonable data quality, resolution and accuracy possibilities, they proved useful on larger projects that would have taken much longer with multirotors and were sometimes impossible on foot. In fact, as they became more popular, a niche emerged that was once dominated by satellite data and manned aircraft. This is because they gather data at a higher resolution and stay below cloud cover while running safer surveys at a fraction of the cost.
What is a fixed-wing drone?
- Similar to a passenger aircraft, a fixed-wing drone relies on its long tilted wings to create a lift effect while cruising
- Unlike multirotors, these UAVs do not need so much battery to stay aloft since the lift effect is passive
- Classical fixed-wing drones require a catapult or hand-launch to take flight, and a parachute or a soft surface to land
- Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) fixed-wing drones are a hybrid of a fixed-wing and a multirotor, which can carry higher-end payloads and take-off and land from a wider range of surfaces
Fixed-wing disadvantages (and a push for something more)
As word caught on about the advantages of fixed-wing drones, many companies began making the switch to save time in the field. But there were—and always will be—a few catches that end up consuming quite a bit of project time while limiting the quality of the results.
First, these systems require large, open and relatively soft landing areas. If a football or soccer field happens to be closeby, this reduces risk. But if not, searching for similar such areas on a mine, construction or forested site can be a time-sucking, if not fruitless, exercise. Add to this that if the area isn’t big enough, belly-landing UAVs have been known to crash into trees or obstacles when low-altitude winds gust or due to planning errors that cannot be remedied once landing has begun.
Second, when it does land within a wide-open, planned area, the fixed-wing goes through a controlled crash. Every
