There has been a massive change in the way drones are used today as compared to how they were used a decade ago. Earlier drones were used only for military purposes but now with the evolution of technology, drones are widely used for commercial purposes as well.
Multirotor drones like DJI Phantom or the Mavic Series work great for small projects. But for large projects such as huge agricultural or mining sites, multi rotors weren’t enough. Anticipating the customers’ demand for upgrading the system to avoid frequent battery swaps and to cut down on field time, the developers introduced the concept of fixed-wing drones.
Structure of Fixed-Wings
The traditional layout of a fixed-wing drone consisted of a straight wing attached at the side of the fuselage, a tail and a fin. The motor and propeller were fixed at the front of the drone. According to the structural design as well as the technical part, fixed-wings have come a long way.
Wings and Airframes play a crucial role in the structure of a fixed-wing aircraft. The airframes are made of carbon fibre, as they are stout and are able to withstand rough takeoff and landing. The wings on the other hand are built from light polystyrene with minimum modification and helps in taking off, remaining aloft and landing, of the aircraft. Though the uavs are known as fixed-wings, their wings are detachable to make transportation easy. The different types of wings available in the market nowadays are as follows:
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The Delta Wing is available in two variations, the simple and complex ones.
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The Swept Wing comes in three variations, the slightly, moderately and highly swept wings.
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The Straight Wing as well has three variations namely retangular, tapered and elliptical straight wings.
Application of fixed-wings
Fixed-wings are usually required for survey or inspection of fields that require heavy payload or require scanning for a longer span of time.
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Forest surveys: The trees, foliage, etc act as obstacles during forest surveys. The best way to carry out surveys in this kind of area is by using LIDAR scanning(This uses lasers for measuring distance and height). Such a system is quite heavy and fixed-wing drones are the best option for this purpose as it can scan the largest area possible for the longest period of time.
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Pipeline surveys: Pipelines span for several miles and also requires heavy rigs like gas monitoring sensors as well as mapping cameras which again calls for the need of fixed-wing drones.
Conclusion
What makes fixed-wing drones unpopular is their high price as compared to rotary drones. For recreation purposes, fixed-wing drones are definitely not the option. However, commercially fixed-wing drones are better and holds more utility to professionals.