Adding fixed-wing to your multirotor fleet: a guide for law enforcement
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.
Here's some key differences between the two types of drone:
Two different manouvres
A multirotor and a fixed-wing don't just differ in range, they watch a scene differently. 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:
That difference is what unlocks reach. A multirotor holding position burns through its 30 to 45 minutes of flight fast, send it 15 kilometres to an incident and most of that time goes into getting there and back. A fixed-wing can loiter for an hour or more because the wing, not the battery, carries the weight, which is what makes it practical to send one 50 kilometres to a call a multirotor would never reach in time. So this isn't about which aircraft is better, it's about which missions open up once you add reach to the fleet you already fly.
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.
What a fixed-wing adds to your fleet
Until this point you're 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. Meaning; 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). `````````
How it fits into 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.
We fly it this way ourselves. Avy's own operations run DJI multirotors alongside Aera, using each aircraft for the missions it's built for.
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.
What is different about flying fixed-wing
Teams adding fixed-wing to their fleet often expect 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
In cruise, a fixed-wing aircraft cannot stop in mid air. To watch a scene, it circles above it while the gimbal keeps the camera locked on the target. The picture is steady, but the angle slowly turns. It is not built to hover over an incident and study the detail. Its job is to get there, find what matters and keep it in view until officers or a multirotor arrive.
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.
Open question: add two or three real examples from customers or our own operations of what surprised teams most.
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.
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.
Three 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.
You do not have to start from scratch. Avy holds a light UAS operator certificate, which lets us authorise new operations ourselves within agreed limits, in days rather than months.
For how SORA, SAIL levels and the LUC work, see our complete guide to BVLOS.
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.
How to start
Check your readiness. Our transition readiness checklist covers the missions, sites, people and procedures to have in place before you switch.
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 a alongside your own multirotors, so your team can see how the two work together in practice.