Flight (military unit)

Foreign languages equivalents include escadrille (French), escuadrilla (Spanish), esquadrilha (Portuguese), lanka (Ukrainian), patrulă (Romanian), zveno (Russian), and Schwarm (German).

The use of the term "flight" originated in the United Kingdom to describe a collection of aircraft (typically four in the early days of aviation), and dates back to around 1912.

It has been suggested that the term was coined by technical sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence, which was examining the British air arrangements around the same time.

The United States Air Force (USAF) has three types of flights: numbered, alphabetic, and aircraft (which may be designated by alpha-numerics or name).

Under U.S. military and FAA common usage, for air traffic control and separation purposes, a "flight" of aircraft is simply two or more aircraft intentionally operating in close proximity to each other (typically in formation) under a designated "flight leader", without regard to military organisational hierarchy.

An escadrille (literal translations: "squad" or "small squadron") is the label given to flights in the air forces and navies of some French-speaking countries.

An escadrille was a homogeneous unit, armed with a single type of aeroplane, with permanent flying and ground personnel attached, motorised transport and tent hangars.

[2] By mid-1915, the Armée de l'air had grown to 119 escadrilles of 10 aircraft each: 14 of fighters, 50 of bombers and the rest reconnaissance, spotter and communications units.

The tactical formation, however, is the twoship with hot spare (the English term is used), the third aircraft being released before reaching the target if none of the others had to be sent back earlier.