Missing man formation.-

The missing man formation is an aerial salute performed as part of a flyover of aircraft at a funeral or memorial event. It is flown to honor fallen comrades as a tribute and showing of love, respect, and camaraderie for a brother pilot. As the formation passes overhead, one of the aircraft pulls up and flies skyward symbolizing the person who has been lost.

The origins of the missing man formation lie in the First World War, when Royal Air Force (RAF) crews got into the habit of doing an organized flyover when they returned to their home airfields, to alert ground crews that they were coming in. During the flyover, ground crews would also take note of how many men had returned from the mission, and since the layout of a tight flight formation is very rigid, the ground crews could figure out who was missing.

According to RAF history, the first official missing man formation as a military honor occurred with the death of the Red Baron. Pilots decided to enact a spontaneous tribute to him, executing a flyover, also known as a flyby, in which an aircraft was obviously missing, symbolizing the Red Baron's departure from the world of the living. In 1936, King George V received the first recorded flypast for a non-RAF funeral. By 1938, the United States had picked up the practice, and it has since become common at prominent military funerals.