Why don't commercial jets fly in formation like air force jets ?

Question

Imagine 8 Jumbos' landing at Heathrow side by side lol.And how many passengers would that be ??.

Answer 1

Well lets consider the fact that it would be dangerous. Crosswinds are real, calm air turbelence is real,  the wake/jetblast that a heavy aircraft leaves behind makes the zone in which it just traveled off limits to other aircraft for a few minutes from a saftey standpoint, lets also consider pilot error overshooting or undershooting the threshold or touchdown zone or simply running/skidding off the runway, would produce disasterous results not only to the aircraft at fault but the domino effect to the other aircraft as well,(how many passengers would that be)?  heres another point to consider upon landing FOD which is forgien object damage would be at the higest of concern you'd be so suprised to know what a small pebble can do to a running turbofan  I'm not saying it cant be done but it would be an extreeeeeeeeeeeeeeemly  risky feat because it narrows an alreary thin margin for error. I have AirForce as well as civilian experience.Suggestion get Microsoft's Flight Simulator an see for yourself how difficult it really is to put a aircraft exactly where you want it all the time it takes practice.

Answer 2

Because they're usually not taking off at the exact same time.

Also, imagine what happens when two of them crash. Also, there's no real reason to fly in the formation, unlike Air Force jets.

It's much better if commercial jets keep a fair distance from each other. It's safer.

Answer 3

because thyr trying to get to a destination and usually from different locations so they can go the same direction

that will just waste time

Answer 4

More problems if one failed to land correctly, example..

777 heavy landing, looses landing gear, veers to the right wipes out 3 other planes, total loss of life in 4 out of the 8 planes landing at the same time..

Safety says land one at a time, even now days this is precision planing and one will be ready to take off as one lands..

Answer 5

A.T.C (Air traffic control) regs; stipulate a minimum clearance for height,distance and timing for all commercial flights.

Also,there are so many different types of civil plane,each with a different flight envelope and affected by other factors such as the load weight and performance.Military flights have a leader co-ordinating the formation,imagine 8 different nationalities of pilots trying to organize  a formation of miscellaneous civil types!

a formation of

Answer 6

tehy are huge planes that are kind of hard to control, and theycan easily crash, the jets move fast and they turn easily, and how scary would it be if you were in a plane and you look outside your window and you see a huge plane like an inch away from the wing to wing you crash you suffer then you die!!

Answer 7

Air Force jets when flying in formation in a bomb or attack group fly together because they are all going to the same place but mostly for protection.  Airliners are on a totally different mission and are kept at two miles or more apart for safety reasons. Rarely if ever would a group of commercial jets all be coming and going from the same location and flying in formation would not have any advantages.

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Answer 8

There's absolutely no reason to. Military jets only fly in formation because of defensive/offensive reasons (and for training)... "Imagine eight Jumbos landing at Heathrow side by side lol"... No, there's nothing funny about that and the risks would be far too high.

Ask a serious question, would you?? (o.O')