This paper addresses prescribed-time fault-tolerant formation tracking control for linear unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) systems with unknown states, external disturbances, and actuator faults. Novel observers are developed based on the augmented system of each follower UAV, enabling simultaneous state observation, disturbance estimation, and fault estimation within a specified time using periodically time-delayed output information. A distributed prescribed-time fault-tolerant control protocol is designed based on the observed data, allowing the UAVs to achieve formation tracking consensus rapidly within a physically permissible time, independent of initial values and parameters. Numerical simulations validate the theoretical results, highlighting the strategy’s potential and value for rapid control of multiple UAV formations in complex environments.