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Drones

The payload decides the aircraft, and the rules decide the payload

Two questions settle almost every drone project. What has to move, and who is underneath while it moves.

A gram is paid for four times

Add a gram of payload and you add structure to carry it, motor to lift it, and battery to power the motor. The battery is itself mass, so it needs a little more of all three. The gram is paid for four times before it has flown anywhere.

That compounding is why range collapses as payload rises, and why the curve is not a straight line. A machine that carries two kilos is not a machine that carries one kilo with a bigger battery. It is a different aircraft.

It is also why the first question is never which drone. It is what has to be moved, how far, how often, and what happens on the day the wind is wrong.

A curve of range against payload with the reserve drawn above it A falling curve runs from top left to bottom right on axes marked range and payload. Three points sit on it, marked half a kilo, two kilos and five kilos, with the middle one drawn heavier. A second violet curve runs parallel below the first and is marked reserve. A glowing line rises from the middle point to a blinking point marked where most deliveries sit. RANGE PAYLOAD 0.5 kg 2 kg 5 kg RESERVE WHERE MOST DELIVERIES SIT EVERY GRAM IS PAID FOR FOUR TIMES
En dronare
A gimbal camera. Every gram of it was paid for in structure, motor, battery and the minutes it takes off the flight.

Payload

Range against payload, and the reserve above both

Every published endurance figure is measured with no wind, a new battery and nothing kept in reserve. None of those three conditions exists on an ordinary Tuesday, which is why real routes are planned at roughly half the number in the brochure.

The reserve is not a safety margin that can be spent when the schedule slips. It is the fuel to reach an alternate landing site, and treating it as optional is how an aircraft ends up in somebody's garden.

The types

What separates them

Four shapes, and the physics that decides which one a job needs.

TypeGood atBad atWhere it fits
MultirotorHolding still, landing anywhere, simple to operateRange, and every minute of hoveringShort hops, inspection, photography
Fixed wingDistance per watt hourStopping, and needing somewhere to landSurvey and mapping over open ground
HybridTaking off vertically and then cruisingComplexity, and carrying two sets of problemsLonger delivery legs
TetheredStaying up indefinitelyGoing anywhere at allA fixed vantage point over one site

Hovering is expensive and cruising is cheap, and almost every choice on this table follows from that one sentence.

Four layers of airspace with the aircraft in the lowest one Four horizontal lines are stacked, marked from the bottom up as open under one hundred and twenty metres, specific and assessed, certified like aviation, and controlled airspace. A measurement down the left reads one hundred and twenty metres. A small four rotor aircraft sits just under the lowest line with a glowing line rising from it. A violet line at the very bottom carries the words who is underneath decides before the air does. OPEN . UNDER 120 m SPECIFIC . ASSESSED CERTIFIED . LIKE AVIATION CONTROLLED AIRSPACE 120 m WHO IS UNDERNEATH DECIDES BEFORE THE AIR DOES FOUR LAYERS, AND THE LOWEST CARRIES MOST WORK
En drönare i luften med last
A no drone zone sign at a trailhead. The restriction exists on the ground before it exists in any flight plan.

The rules

The rules decide the route before the battery does

European drone rules sort flights by risk and not by aircraft size. The open category covers low risk flights below a hundred and twenty metres and needs no permission. The specific category needs an assessment approved by the authority. The certified category is run like manned aviation.

Which category a job lands in is decided mostly by who is underneath. Flying over your own yard, over a road, and over a crowd are three different legal situations with the same aircraft.

That is why the map of where you may not fly gets drawn before the one showing how far you could. A route planned on endurance alone usually crosses something that makes it a different category of flight.

Two jobs

Two jobs, two different aircraft

Delivery and inspection pull the design in opposite directions. Each has its own page.

A delivery route that curves around a no fly cone between a depot and a door A depot on the left and a door on the right sit on a ground line. A straight line joins them and is marked straight line, not available. Above it a drawn curve bends up and over a violet cone marked no fly. A small four rotor aircraft sits on the curve carrying a package marked one point eight kilos, with a glowing line falling from it toward the ground. DEPOT DOOR STRAIGHT LINE . NOT AVAILABLE NO FLY 1.8 kg DEPOT . ROUTE . DOOR

Delivery

The last mile, the landing site, and the handover. Payload and route are everything, and the site decides more than the aircraft.

The last mile
A patrol route around a building with three sensors listed and faces struck out A building is drawn from above inside a larger rectangle that is the patrol route. Four waypoints sit at its corners, the first one blinking. On the right three boxes list thermal, gas and sound. Below them a fourth box is crossed through with a violet cross and marked no faces. Across the middle of the building stand the words an instrument, not a witness. WP1 WP2 WP3 WP4 THERMAL GAS SOUND NO FACES AN INSTRUMENT, NOT A WITNESS PATROL . MEASURE . REPORT

Inspection and security

A patrol that measures. What the instrument records, and what it is built not to record.

The round

Or write here

Three fields, and a person reads it

Name, an address we can answer to, and what you are trying to build. You get a reference back straight away.

We use this to answer you and, where it fits, to prepare a scope. The lawful basis is steps taken at your own request before a contract. It is stored on our own server in the European Union, never passed to anyone, and deleted after twelve months if it does not become an engagement. The full notice is on the legal page.

A curve of range against payload with the reserve drawn above it A falling curve runs from top left to bottom right on axes marked range and payload. Three points sit on it, marked half a kilo, two kilos and five kilos, with the middle one drawn heavier. A second violet curve runs parallel below the first and is marked reserve. A glowing line rises from the middle point to a blinking point marked where most deliveries sit. RANGE PAYLOAD 0.5 kg 2 kg 5 kg RESERVE WHERE MOST DELIVERIES SIT EVERY GRAM IS PAID FOR FOUR TIMES

What do you need to move, and how far?

Those two numbers plus who is underneath settle most of it. We read the record and the rules before anybody quotes an airframe.

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