Flyboys

All facts (15)

1. #001

   The real Lafayette Escadrille actually had a pair of lion cubs as mascots. One of them was genuinely named "Whiskey," as in the film. The other was fittingly named "Soda."

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2. #002

   James Franco earned his pilot's license while preparing for this film.

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3. #003

   The character Skinner is based on Eugene Bullard, an American Escadrille pilot who went to France and worked there as a boxer. Like Skinner, he was the son of a slave. Bullard was rejected from the Lafayette Escadrille by a prejudiced white man. He served in another escadrille in the Lafayette Flying Corps.

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4. #004

   The character Beagle chose that name to escape his dirty past. The writers named Beagle in honor of Snoopy, who as the Beagle in the Peanuts comic strip frequently fought the Red Baron.

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5. #005

   Contrary to another contributor's note, the N-prefixed number on the tails of the French fighter planes is entirely original and not at all anachronistic. N was Nieuport's identification code, and the number was the production number in the series.

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6. #006

   Frank Luke Jr. was the first aviator to receive the Medal of Honor. Luke Air Force Base in Arizona is named in his honor.

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7. #007

   The character Blaine Rawlings was inspired by the American ace Frank Luke Jr.

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8. #008

   The lightweight Nieuport replicas did stay on the ground, but the full-size Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter genuinely flew for the film. In the best Hollywood tradition, it portrayed several different aircraft, each with different "makeup" (water-based paint). The Sopwith is now at the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach and still flies regularly.

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9. #009

   The triplane flown by the German pilots is the Fokker DR 1, designed by the Dutch aviation pioneer Anthony Fokker. Because Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron) and several other high-scoring German aces developed an almost cult-like attachment to the aircraft, it has always enjoyed a fame disproportionate to its real value or its contribution to the German war effort. Only 320 were actually built, and they served at the front only from late 1917 to mid-1918. The aircraft's main characteristics were its rapid rate of climb and its ability to turn to the right at lightning speed thanks to the torque effect of its rotary engine. Highly experienced pilots could turn this into a great advantage in combat, but the same characteristics were very dangerous for inexperienced aviators, and many accidents occurred. The design also had structural problems, in particular the tendency of the ailerons to separate from the upper wing or the upper wing to fail completely under high-G maneuvers. These problems were initially attributed to poor quality control at the Fokker factory, which was certainly a factor, but postwar tests also revealed that the aircraft had serious design flaws that caused dangerously high G loads on the upper wing during aerial combat maneuvers. Ironically, the biplane Fokker D7 fighter that followed Fokker's design is widely considered the best fighter design of the war, yet it receives far less attention than his troubled triplane.

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10. #010

    Reed Cassidy's personal emblem is an eagle's head surrounded by the words "Je Vois Tout," meaning "I see all."

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11. #011

    The producers tried to use lightweight reproductions of First World War aircraft, but after a crash they grounded them.

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12. #012

    (At about the 41st minute) It was absolutely unheard of for a fighter pilot of that day to shoot and kill an enemy pilot who had survived a crash. At the time, enemy pilots knew how risky and dangerous their job was and held great respect for one another. Though they were ruthless enemies, they observed the rules of chivalry.

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13. #013

    Blaine Rawlings's hometown of Aberdeen, Texas, actually had a post office that existed from 1889 to 1942, and it survived as a small town during the Second World War. Located in the state's Panhandle, the town lost its legal status in 1963 due to population loss but continues to survive as a small community. Aberdeen's former site lies 95 miles east of Amarillo and 8 miles west of the Oklahoma border.

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14. #014

    (At about 1 hour 50 minutes) The Paris street scene in which Blaine Rawlings says goodbye to Lucienne uses the same street as the 1999 film Sleepy Hollow (1999). Johnny Depp's Ichabod Crane, together with Christina Ricci's Katrina Van Tassel, returns to New York at the end of that film. You can see the same street and buildings; you can also see where the shot is static and where blue screen was used.

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15. #015

    The film's opening prologue reads: "At the dawn of 1916, World War I had swept across Europe. In the end, more than nine million people would die. Although the airplane had only just been invented, it was quickly adapted into a machine of war. The young men who flew them became the first fighter pilots, and a new kind of hero was born."

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