Fixed-wing drones
A drone that flies like an aeroplane — a wing provides the lift, so it covers long distances on one battery but cannot hover and needs room to launch and land.
- fixed-wing drone
- UAV plane
No products in this category yet.
What it is
A fixed-wing aerial robot is an unmanned aeroplane: the wing makes lift from forward speed, and the propeller only has to beat drag. That is several times more efficient than hovering, so on the same battery a fixed-wing craft flies for an hour or more and tens of kilometres where a multirotor manages well under an hour. The trade: it has to keep moving to stay up. It cannot hover or look at something close up, it needs a launcher, a throw or a strip to get airborne, and a field, a net or a parachute to come down.
Called a fixed-wing drone or a UAV plane. In this taxonomy the rule is lift from a fixed wing and no ability to hover. If it also has rotors for vertical take-off it is a hybrid VTOL.
What they are used for
- Mapping and survey — photogrammetry of farms, mines, forests and construction sites, where hectares per flight matter more than hovering.
- Long-range monitoring — pipelines, coastlines, borders and wildlife counts, flown on pre-planned routes.
- Research — university aerodynamics and autonomy work on small foam airframes with open autopilots.
- Defence — most military UAVs are fixed-wing; they sit largely outside this catalogue.
What to compare
| Attribute | Why it matters | In this catalogue |
|---|---|---|
flight_time |
Hours, not minutes — the reason to choose a wing | not yet in the catalogue |
max_takeoff_weight |
Weight class sets the rules and the size of launch site needed | not yet in the catalogue |
payload |
A mapping camera is light; multispectral and lidar sensors shorten flights | not yet in the catalogue |
autonomy |
Almost always flown by an autopilot on a planned route | not yet in the catalogue |
sdk |
Open autopilots expose everything; survey products expose a mission planner | not yet in the catalogue |
open_source |
Research airframes run open autopilots; survey products are closed | not yet in the catalogue |
In the catalogue
No products yet — this is where mapping and survey aeroplanes, from hand-launched foam wings to catapult-launched monitoring aircraft, would go.
Edge cases
- Rotors added for vertical take-off: hybrid VTOL, a separate category.
- Flying wings and tail-less designs: still fixed-wing.
- Radio-controlled model planes with no autopilot are not robots: they fail the programmable test in the Robot inclusion rule.
- Parachute or net recovery does not make it VTOL — it still cannot take off vertically.
Related
Rule of membership
Lift from a fixed wing; cannot hover.
Category rb-6-2 in the whatrobot taxonomy.