Path planning for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) formation is particularly crucial when interacting with complex real-world environments. The artificial potential field method exhibits shortcomings such as goal nonreachable with obstacle nearby and local minimum when guiding unmanned aerial vehicle formation in three-dimensional path planning. This paper addresses these issues improving the traditional artificial potential field method"s repulsion calculation formula to resolve the problem of goal nonreachable with obstacle nearby. Furthermore, classify local minimum and employ different repulsion calculation methods for different types of local equilibrium points. effectively overcoming the problem of potential local minimum that the traditional artificial potential field method encounter. Finally, the improved artificial potential field method, combined with leader-follower method, is applied to the path planning problem of unmanned aerial vehicle formation. Simulation results indicate that the studied three-dimensional path planning algorithm for unmanned aerial vehicle formation, based on the improved artificial potential field method, effectively resolves obstacle avoidance and path planning issues in a static environment.