The invention relates to a vehicle environment sensing system and method based on an unmanned plane, and the system and method are used for quickly acquiring the road environment information around a vehicle. The sensing system comprises the unmanned plane and an earth station, the unmanned plane id connected with the vehicle through a mooring rope, the road surface is shot by the unmanned plane, and a video image is transmitted to the earth station; the earth station is arranged in the target vehicle, the earth station can process the video image to obtain the vehicle environment information, and the earth station also can calculate the flight control parameter and send the parameter to the unmanned plane to make the unmanned plane and the vehicle move together. The sensing method is based on the sensing system, the unmanned plane takes off and hovers above the vehicle, the unmanned plane establishes a communication for sensing the environment and transmits the video image to the earth station, the earth station processes the video image, calculates the vehicle environment information and transmits the information to the vehicle, and the earth station calculates the flight control parameter and transmits the parameter to the unmanned plane. According to the invention, the system can perform the wide area observation in the direction vertical to the vehicle plane direction, the coverage is wide, the road environment information around the target vehicle can be easily sensed, and the distance between the objects in the image can be precisely calculated.