Goofs

The yellow biplane trainers are Naval Aircraft Factory N3Ns. In one sequence Flynn taxis out in a big-tailed N3N-1 and takes off in a smaller tailed N3N-3 (also different landing gear struts.) Additionally, the "N3N" stunt flying is done in a civilian Travel Air painted yellow.

In the carrier landings at the beginning of the movie, a Vought SB2U Vindicator dive bomber is shown approaching the ship, followed by an immediate cut to a Brewster F2A Buffalo fighter snagging a cable, and then quickly followed by a Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo plane rolling out - three completely different airplanes in a matter of seconds.

Anthony passes out during the high altitude chamber testing, and putting on his oxygen mask knocks off the oxygen sensor clipped to his left ear lobe, yet the next view of him from the front, still adjusting the straps, shows the oxygen sensor still attached to his ear.

When the carrier pilots launch to fly to Pearl Harbor, Joe Blake (Fred McMurray) climbs into a one-seat monoplane (Brewster F2A Buffalo?) with a very visible circular headrest behind him. However, when the planes are launching, they are Curtiss SBC Helldiver biplanes with elongated "greenhouse" cockpits that contain two crewmembers. Later in a continuation of the same flight, Joe Blake seems to be flying a Buffalo again (based on the circular headrest), but Vought SB2U Vindicators are shown diving.

At about the 1 hour 16 minute mark Errol Flynn is shown about to take a cigarette out of the pack. In the next immediate shot the cigarette is already lit and he is smoking it.

Throughout the movie the military etiquette is sloppy. Salutes are rendered haphazardly, with subordinate officers or enlisted not saluting first and holding the salute until the superior officer has saluted, and in many cases the superior officers fail to return salutes. The snappy repartee between officers of different rank is not unusual within a unit, but is not correct when the officers are strangers. Doug Lee (Errol Flynn) is particularly careless in this regard.

Near the end when Commander Blake is testing the pressure suit, he states he is "taking the plane to 40,000 feet". The service ceiling of the Grumman F3F-4 was 33,500 feet - the airplane would have been unable to get to 40,000 feet.

The twin-engine airplane with the pressurized cabin was a Lockheed Model 10A Electra. The Model 10A had a service ceiling of 19,400 which would prevent the airplane from reaching 40,000 feet as depicted in the movie. (One Model 10A was converted for the Army as the XC-35 with a pressurized cabin - it had a service ceiling of 31,500 feet - still short of 40,000 feet.)

The scenes on the flight line at North Island Naval Air Station frequently show mass flyovers of aircraft, done no doubt for the movie cameras. In fact, as a training base with many novice flyers struggling to learn how to fly, as depicted in the movie, this amount of spurious air activity overhead would be a dangerous flight safety situation.

A Vought SB2U Vindicator is shown in a controlled vertical (90-degree) dive. Dive-bombers usually dove at angles between 45 and 60 degrees. Even the vaunted German Stuka dive-bombers didn't operate beyond 80 degrees.

At the start of the film planes come in for a landing and appear to be diving straight down at about a 90 degree angle. Yet clouds also seem to be turned at the same angle. Obviously this scene was filmed with planes flying level and the filmed turned 90 degrees to make it appear that the planes are diving straight down.

The twin-engine airplane with the pressurized cabin was a Lockheed Model 10A Electra. The Model 10A had a service ceiling of 19,400 which would prevent the airplane from reaching 40,000 feet as depicted in the movie. (One Model 10A was converted for the Army as the XC-35 with a pressurized cabin - it had a service ceiling of 31,500 feet - still short of 40,000 feet.)

When Swede Larson (Louis Jean Heydt) passes out, fails to come out of a dive, and crashes his Vought SB2U Vindicator, there is a curious lack of fire from such a devastating event. When the crash crews arrive the wrecked airplane is a crude mock-up of a Vindicator with a completely different tail group.

Near the end when Commander Blake is testing the pressure suit, he states he is "taking the plane to 40,000 feet". The service ceiling of the Grumman F3F-4 was 33,500 feet - the airplane would have been unable to get to 40,000 feet.

It has already been noted by another contributor that the RAF fighter flown by Tim Griffin (Regis Toomey) is a disguised Ryan training plane. The fact that an open-cockpit, fixed gear, obsolete monoplane would represent a modern British fighter nearly two years into World War II, is an insult to movie-goers' intelligence. It would have been better to paint up a Brewster F2A Buffalo (which was in the movie, but not featured) as an RAF fighter, which would have been more accurate since the US had already given/sold many Buffalos to the British by that time under President Roosevelt's Lend-Lease program.

At c. 94 minutes we see and hear the "Los Amigos" band. However, the vocalist's words bear absolutely no resemblance to the lyrics actually sung.

During the high altitude pressurized cabin test, after the pilot Joe Blake (Fred MacMurray) passes out and the plane goes into a dive, the plane shown spinning and diving out of control is a shiny dark green plastic toy with no markings, while the actual plane shown flying in earlier views of the test is a lighter military green in color and has U.S. Navy markings on it.

The airfield used in the beginning of the movie was never identified, nor does it look like Ford Island which was the principal field used by the Navy. The mountains depicted in the backdrop are a matte painting and the scene was likely shot during location filming in San Diego.