Adding fixed-wing drones to your fleet
A practical guide for police, border and customs drone teams adding a fixed-wing aircraft to an existing multirotor fleet.
Most police, border and customs drone teams already run a capable multirotor fleet. Those aircraft hover over a scene, hold position and show every detail, and they should stay at the heart of your programme.
What they cannot give you is reach. A fixed-wing drone fixes that: flying +50 kilometres to an incident that would otherwise get no air support at all. It is not a better multirotor or a replacement for one, in fact many fixed wings use multirotors to take-off and land (see diagram below). It is a form of flight that covers the ground that purely multirotors cannot. This guide explains what it adds, how it fits alongside the aircraft you already fly, and what is different about flying it.
For this guide we're focussing on fixed-wing VTOLs instead of fixed wings that require a runway or some other manual takeoff and landing because these aren't proven applications used by existing law enforcement.
How flying fixed-wing is different
Teams adding fixed-wing to their fleet often expect the same experience but just a longer range drone. What they get is a new form of flight, and the differences show up in how they watch, fly, plan and organise.
You watch in loiter/orbit, not from a fixed point
A multirotor hovers: it holds an exact position overhead, its rotors constantly balancing weight and wind. A fixed-wing (usually) can't stop in the air, so it loiters instead: it circles the point of interest, letting the wing carry the weight while the camera stays locked on target. Both aircraft put eyes on the same scene; they just get there, and stay there, in different ways:
A fixed wing VTOL has the ability to hover mid flight but the physical change in flying requires energy and typically isn't an effective use.
It has a minimum speed
A fixed-wing aircraft follows a moving car or boat well, but it cannot creep along behind someone on foot. Slow targets are watched from an orbit that drifts with them. Close, slow work in tight spaces is a job for the multirotor.
Take off and landing need more thought
A VTOL aircraft lifts off vertically, then transitions to wing flight. That transition needs clear space and takes the most power of any phase, so launch sites, docks and landing points have to be chosen with obstacles and wind direction in mind.
The pilot plans more and flies less
At 30 kilometres out, nobody hand flies. The work moves to planning routes, altitudes, no fly areas and safe landing points, then supervising the aircraft and the camera. Good airmanship, airspace awareness and clear communication with the control room matter more than stick skills.
Distance brings new airspace and new links
Flying far means meeting more of the airspace: police and medical helicopters, control zones around airfields and low flying military traffic. It also means relying on mobile coverage at altitude and over water, which is why a second link or a satellite backup matters.
A bigger aircraft needs a bigger plan
A fixed-wing VTOL aircraft is larger and heavier than most multirotors. That affects transport, storage and where docks can go, and it raises the ground risk in the authorisation. Planning routes over sparsely populated areas, and carrying a parachute where needed, keeps that manageable.
The organisation changes around it
Once an aircraft can reach the whole district, more people want it. Decide early who can task it, how requests are prioritised and how the picture reaches officers on the ground. Teams that leave this until later find their new aircraft either idle or overbooked.
Adding a fixed-wing to your fleet
Until this point your drone operation has probably been limited to smaller areas but with a fixed wing you'll be able to fly further and faster. This opens up different missions.
Response from a distance. An aircraft launched from a dock can fly 50 kilometres to an incident that would otherwise have been missed, and send back the first picture while units are still on the road.
Time on task. With an hour or more in the air, the aircraft spends its flight working rather than commuting, and stays overhead through the moments that matter.
Area patrols. Coastlines, borders, ports and rural districts can be covered in one flight rather than in short hops from a van.
No crew at the scene. A few fixed-wing options (such as the Avy Aera) are also compatible with a dock. This means the pilot flies from the control room, so officers are not tied up launching and recovering the aircraft, or exposed at the edge of a dangerous scene.
Air support at drone cost. Many tasks that would have justified a helicopter, or gone without air support, can be flown for a fraction of the cost.
In practice
Police operators in Belgium are running a joint pilot along their coast, using fixed wings to watch beaches, dunes and open water against human smuggling and dangerous Channel crossings, day and night. Flights are coordinated from a central command centre, with Citymesh operating the aircraft (source).
Must Read
Citymesh & Belgian coastal police
Along the Belgian coast, four police zones have deployed the Avy Aera to support the fight against human smuggling and help prevent dangerous crossings of the English Channel. The aircraft is operated and integrated by Citymesh, with the Avy Aera at the heart of the operation.
Dominik Kondziela
Marketing & Communications Lead
How it fits in to your fleet
Fixed-wing does not replace your multirotors. It covers the ground they cannot reach. Each does a different part of the job: multirotors for close, slow and detailed work, fixed-wing for distance, duration and first response.
Adding a fixed-wing builds on the programme you already run rather than starting a new one:
The same control room. The dispatchers who task your multirotors task the fixed-wing too, so one call can send either aircraft, or both.
The same people. Your multirotor pilots already know airspace, camera work and your procedures. They add fixed-wing mission planning on top.
The same picture. Plan for the fixed-wing's video to reach the same screens and systems as your multirotor feeds, so commanders see one operation, not two.
Which aircraft does which job:
Task
Aircraft
Why
Crime scene or collision mapping
Multirotor
Hovers low and slow over a small area
Close tracking of a person on foot
Multirotor
Can match walking pace and hold position
Indoor or confined spaces
Multirotor
Small and agile
First response across a district
Fixed-wing VTOL
Reaches the scene from a dock before road units
Missing person search over a large area
Fixed-wing VTOL
Covers ground quickly and stays up longer
Coastline, border or port patrol
Fixed-wing VTOL
Long routes in one flight
Following a vehicle or vessel
Fixed-wing VTOL
Keeps pace at speed
Long incidents needing overwatch
Fixed-wing VTOL
Long time on task with fewer swaps
In practice they hand over to each other. The fixed-wing aircraft reaches a distant incident first and finds what matters, then a multirotor takes over for close detail once officers are on scene.
Response time and coverage
When a call comes in, two things decide how quickly you get eyes on the scene: how fast the aircraft is airborne, and how much ground it can reach once it’s up.
Airborne in about 30 seconds. A fixed-wing VTOL launches itself from its dock the moment it’s tasked. Nobody has to drive to a vehicle, unpack equipment or walk out to a launch point.
One dock covers a whole district. Including launch, a single dock reaches:
Time after the call
Distance
Area covered
10 minutes
14 km
~640 km²
15 minutes
22 km
~1,500 km²
20 minutes
29 km
~2,700 km²
A straight line to the scene. The aircraft flies directly to the incident, over water, dunes, fields and traffic. Roads rarely run straight, and along a coast or a border the road route can be many times longer, or not exist at all.
No crew needs to be free. The aircraft doesn’t wait for a unit to become available or come within range. Calls that would have had no air support at all now get a live picture in the control room.
Lay those distances over a map of your own area, compare them with your force’s response data, and you’ll quickly see where a fixed-wing makes the difference.
This isn't the BVLOS you're used to
"Beyond visual line of sight" sounds modest: a drone a few hundred metres past where the pilot could still just about see it. That's genuinely what a lot of commercial BVLOS work looks like today; a site inspection, a stretch of pipeline, a field survey, still tethered to a yard or a depot.
Flying a fixed-wing VTOL for law enforcement is a different kind of BVLOS. A 50 kilometre call isn't a few hundred metres past the fence, it can cross from one municipality into the next, out of one force's jurisdiction and into a neighbour's, or straight out over open water, the way the Belgian coastal patrol flies past the shoreline with nothing below it but sea.
That distance changes what the operation has to account for, not just how far the aircraft can go. A picture that's accurate at the dock can be wrong by the time the aircraft gets there:
Weather. It can be dry and calm at launch and raining or gusting over the incident, the crew needs a forecast for the destination, not just the yard.
Airspace. The route can cross from uncontrolled airspace into a control zone, a restricted area or the pattern around an aerodrome, each with its own rules and contacts.
Air traffic. Other aircraft, crewed or uncrewed, may already be working that patch of sky a helicopter, a neighbouring force's drone, a farmer's spray drone.
Jurisdiction. Who has the authority to task the aircraft, and to act on what it finds, can change at a force or county boundary.
Daylight. A flight that launches in daylight can still be in the air after sunset, which changes what the camera sees and what rules apply.
Communications. Coverage that's solid at the dock can drop out over water or in a valley further along the route.
None of that shows up in a shorter BVLOS flight. It's the kind of problem a helicopter crew plans for, not a drone operator, which is exactly where a fixed-wing VTOL sits: the reach and planning discipline of crewed aviation, flown without the crew.
For how SORA, SAIL levels and the LUC work, see our complete guide to BVLOS.
What changes in the authorisation
Flying further usually means a new or wider authorisation, because the risk assessment looks at what the aircraft flies over and through. A longer route crosses more ground and more airspace, and a larger aircraft carries more ground risk. Choosing routes over sparsely populated areas and fitting the right safety equipment keeps the assessment proportionate.
Two points matter most for law enforcement teams:
Check which rules apply to you. In EU countries, police, customs and border control flights can sit outside the EU drone rules, depending on how your country has arranged it (EASA). In the UK, the route runs through a CAA operational authorisation.
Start where the risk is lowest. A coastline, border or rural area makes a better first operation than a city centre.
Choosing the fixed-wing for your fleet
Does it take off vertically?
Runway or catapult launched aircraft are hard to deploy from a dock or a station. VTOL removes that problem (more on VTOL).
Can it work from a dock?
A dock that launches, lands and recharges the aircraft is what makes response from the control room possible.
What are the range and endurance with your payload?
Ask for figures with the camera fitted, not empty.
What wind can it fly in?
Ask for a limit that includes gusts.
How does it stay connected and visible?
Look for redundant links and electronic conspicuity such as ADS-B and FLARM, so crewed aircraft know where it is.
What happens when something fails?
Look for redundant sensors, automatic return or landing at safe points, and a parachute option.
People and the control room
With a multirotor, the pilot is part of the team at the scene. With a fixed-wing aircraft flying from a dock, the pilot becomes part of the control room.
Where pilots sit. Many forces place remote pilots alongside the dispatchers who task them, so a call becomes a launch in minutes.
New skills. Training shifts towards mission planning, airspace, link loss and emergency procedures, plus working the camera from an orbit.
Sharing the picture. Decide how live video reaches commanders and officers on the ground, and who talks to the pilot during an incident.
Procedures and records. Written procedures for normal flights and emergencies, and a log of every flight, support both the authorisation and the evidence chain.
You do not have to build all of this at once. A specialist operator can fly for you while your own team builds experience, as Citymesh does for police operators in Belgium.
Example: The Avy operations centre
How to start
Check your readiness. Our transition readiness checklist covers the missions, sites, people and procedures to have in place before you make additions.
Pick one first mission. Choose incidents your team cannot reach from the air today, such as a coastline patrol or first response across a rural district, in a low risk area.
Speak to an experienced operator. At Avy we manufacture but also operate drones from alongside your own multirotors, so your team can see how the two work together in practice.
We are Avy, the fixed-wing manufacturer and operator
Avy designs and manufactures fixed-wing VTOL aircraft, and we operate them every day alongside our own multirotors. We can help your team pick a first mission, plan the authorisation route, or fly for you while your pilots build experience.