This paper presents a distributed model predictive control algorithm for the formation and maintenance of multi-quadrotor during the cruise fight. That is dealing with the formation control using the rolling optimization method. Firstly, a linear time-invariant formation motion model is established. Then using the leader-follower strategy, a distributed model predictive controller is designed by introducing the assumed state trajectory of itself and neighbors to the cost function, which is in the case of considering the state and input constraints, without considering the communication delay, external interference and noise. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) interact with local information based on a directional, time-invariant communication topology. Based on the controller, UAVs can quickly form a pre-set formation and maintain it while tracking the target trajectory. To ensure the stability of the system, the terminal equality constraint is introduced. Then taking the cost function as the Lyapunov function, the sufficient conditions for the asymptotic stability of the formation system are given. Finally, simulations with six UAVs demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithm.