Hehehe you actually had it 
It's the Phoenix from Battle of the Planets 
Oooh, could that show have possibly gone by the title of 'G-Force'? I'm sure I recognize that plane from a show I used to watch as a little kid. The heroes were all code-named after various birds like Eagle, Falcon, etc. and they each had their own vehicles which would all combine with the Phoenix and then they would go blow up various giant robotic baddies.
Does that sound right?
Yep, that's the series, in the UK and US it was called Battle of the Planets, iirc the original version never had the scenes with the Robots in, they were added later by Hanna Barbara to explain the plot to western viewers
However, in the UK the team was Mark, Jason, Tiny, Princess and Cheops, and you seem to have the plot mixed up a little with 'Starfleet', a puppet-based animation from Japan that come out at roughly the same time
