The vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has many advantages, such as low requirements for takeoff and landing site, good maneuverability, high cruise speed and long endurance, etc., which is a hot topic in the aviation field. This paper describes the existing VTOL fixed wing UAV development status and their features around the world, and then analyzes the technical problems faced by these different types of VTOL fixed wing UAVs. It indicates that the VTOL fixed wing UAV with higher cruise speed, longer battery life, and stronger ability of task load seems to be the main developing direction and inevitable trend in the future. Although the tilting rotor configuration and tailstock configuration are still the mainstream configuration of the VTOL fixed wing UAV in nowadays, the distributed electric propulsion (DEP) VTOL fixed wing UAV technology will become the hottest issues in the field of aerospace, therefore, it is necessary to enhance the evolutionary research in the new-concept configurations and new principles of the high-performance VTOL fixed wing UAVs.