When formed in the air, the main plane is weighed.

More than two planes fly in a certain formation or arrangement. When flying in formation, the planes must keep the specified distance, interval and height difference. The basic formations are wedge, trapezoid, cross and cylinder. These formations consist of single aircraft or detachments. The central problem of formation flying is to maintain the prescribed formation and give full play to the aircraft performance. When the pilot chooses the flight state, he should give the wingman room to correct the deviation, and the wingman should cooperate closely with the pilot. During the flight, the captain issued instructions to change the formation plan and the relative position of each aircraft as needed. Formation flying requires high precision, strict discipline and strong visual ability, which can be used for attack, bombing, reconnaissance, airdrop, search, cover, defense, aerial photography, review, performance and training. Formation flying is one of the important tactics of air force deployment. Adopting the correct formation in air combat is helpful to gain air superiority, while the single aircraft leaving the formation is vulnerable to enemy attacks. In modern air combat, there are more and more tactics of flying in mixed formation with bombers, fighters and electronic jammers. When flying in formation, the wake and shock wave of the front aircraft usually affect the flight of the rear aircraft. At the top of the stratosphere, the acceleration performance of the engine becomes worse, and the aircraft reacts slowly after controlling the rudder surface. The wingman needs to find the deviation and correct it as soon as possible to keep the formation.

The leader is called the captain, and the rest are called wingmen.