The formation flight control problem has been extensively discussed in recent years with numerous applications on aircraft and spacecraft systems. For aerial vehicles, advantages of performing formation flight have been well documented, including but not limited to fuel saving, more efficient air traffic control, and cooperative task allocation. For space vehicles, the precision control of formation flight will enable future large aperture space telescopes, variable baseline space interferometers, autonomous rendezvous and docking, and robotic assembly of space structures in space.

The main focus of this special issue will be to discuss modeling, control, and experimental techniques that are related to formation flight. This special issue will become an international forum for researches to present the most recent developments and ideas in the field, with special emphasis on the theoretical and empirical results obtained within the last five years. The topics to be covered include, but are not limited to:

• Various formation estimation and control topologies, methodologies, and strategies such as leader-follower, centralized/decentralized, and hybrid methods
• Bioinspired formation control approaches
• Onboard path/trajectory planning for formation flight
• Empirical results of formation flight experiments
• Survey of recent developments

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijae/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: