In Ephrata Wa I seen five big jet planes in a row w/ a fighter plane escort off the first plane?

Question

The planes were light colored and at least the size of a commercial jet. They were traveling west and much closer together than regular air traffic.

I just am curious as to what they were and why the formation. :)

I often see both military and commercial planes since Moses Lake has a large airport and flight school and Spokane's air base is near. A couple of planes is most common flying together. Five is unusual. I had also never seen a straight line formation. Is that common. I had seen the arrow type before. Also rarely seen the mix of large planes with the fighter escort. It was the day before Boeing unveiled the new 787, and had considered that they were doing a test run of some type.

Thanks to everyone for their answers. :)

Answer 1

Five big jet planes in a row w/ a fighter plane escort off the firts plane is a military tight formation, usually big planes like this might be a transport cargo, bomber or a tanker.

Answer 2

Most likely it was a training flight. There are Airforce bases in Tacoma (McChord) and Spokane (Fairchild) as well as a Naval Air Station at Whidbey Is. So there are always a good amount of military air in Washington. They could be C-17's which are stationed at McChord. Fighters usually fly formation off of larger aircraft that they are escorting. Also when groups of fighter type aircraft fly somewhere in a group they tend to fly in formation. Formation allows for mutual support amongst the wingmen and for single seat pilots it allows them to look out for each other on long flights

Answer 3

It really doesn't make sense unless the fighter was taking pictures of the larger planes in formation.

The only large military planes I can imagine flying in a row would be for a parachute drop.

Answer 4

light colored planes? sound like NASA to me