But if it works, formation flying is sure to become a virtual reality.
Formation flying may sound easy, but a number of challenges remain.
Although vehicles approaching the space station, such as the shuttle, will frequently hold their position just metres away from the platform, this formation flying is very short-lived.
Large air shows like those feature pilots pulling seemingly death-defying maneuvers in all manner of aircraft from biplanes to jets, precision formation flying, skydivers jumping from planes and, of course, screeching military jets pulling high-G maneuvers.
"Pete" Aldrich certified that the "technical progress of the flight testing" has satisfied safety, reliability, maneuverability, formation flying, shipboard compatibility and other issues that have, in the past, hindered the development and acquisition of this aircraft.
Launched in 2011, the spacecraft spent nearly a year flying in formation, exclusively collecting gravitational data.
Such detailed, small-scale measurements of a three-dimensional region of space would be impossible without satellites flying in formation.
She was piloting an AT-6 "Texan" when the wing of another AT-6 flying in formation colliding with Lovejoy's aircraft, according to Lauria-Blum.
The effective mirror size for a virtual telescope made up of spacecraft flying in formation depends on the separation of those spacecraft.
Flying in formation, they could map the gravitational field of an asteroid or moon by monitoring tiny changes in their relative positions.
Roger Linfield and his colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who are in charge of the mission, aim to show that spacecraft flying in formation can be controlled so precisely that the distance between them varies by only a tiny fraction of a wavelength of light.
Two German radar satellites are now flying in tight formation as they prepare to make the most detailed ever 3D map of the Earth's entire surface.
Part of the vision calls for flying jets in the same formation as a flock of birds, which would reduce energy use and carbon emissions.
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