Flight groups in Macross

[Smiley424]

I was just thinking, in Macross they seem to fly in groups of three, always a group leader and two wingmen. We have Hikaru, Max, and Kakizaki in SDF Macross. In the beginning of Mac+ it seem to be Isamu and two other pilots in the beginning fighting the zentradi. In Mac7 Diamond and Emerald Squadron were composed of three planes. From my understanding, don't fighter squadrons break into pairs when engaging the enemy. I was just wondering if there was a reason behind the grouping of three valks in Macross.

[vanpang]

yes they tend to fly in groups of three now that you mentioned it, probably this UN Spacy standard fighter formation ?

And you are right, modern fighter planes usually fly in pairs.

[Nightbat]

In DYRL there is question of flying in pairs

although we don't see Kakizaki around Roy, it's clear that Max and Hikaru were teamed up

later on there were 3, but that could easily be explained by "shortage of pilots" (or else why would Hikaru be a "One man squadron" in the end, he could easily be reassigned to another wing)

This however doesn't explain SDF-TV

[vanpang]

If I remembered correctly the Japanese were still using the three planes formation in WW2 (I maybe wrong), probably that is why Kawamori san adopted that formation.

[myk]

I don't think that the 3-man squad has anything to do with a military or technical application. The main characters, or the boys (Roy, Hikaru, Max, 'Kaki), needed to be featured together on-screen in order to facilitate dialogue and action sequences-what better way to do that than to have them fly together in a three man formation?

[Knight26]

We had this discussion back on the old boards. In WW2 the Japanesse did use 3 man formations, just not too effectively, requires great communication. In a modern air warfare environment a two man formation is preferable because in general you will only expect attack from above or below, depending on altitude, and not both. Whereas in space it would be better to fly in a three fighter formation because you can expect attack from any direction. In a strike formation this would be essential so the two wingmen could cover the striker while he goes in for the target.

[Coota0]

This however doesn't explain SDF-TV

I think Kawmori (wow, did I spell that right?) was basing the UNSpacy fighter forces on WWII Japanes Naval forces. The pilots fly in 3 man formations, they're not all officers (they are in DYRL), Max and the others start out as privates not Ensigns.