This flick has two things in common with reality:

One - an outfit of American mercenaries called The First American Volunteer Group,
nick-named the 'Flying Tigers', flew the Curtiss P-40 against the Japanese under the Chinese
flag from late 1941 to mid-1942, and gave better than they got.

Two - uhhh, well, surely, I'll think of something else. Eventually. And when, or if, I do
I'll be sure to let ya'll know in a future update. Maybe.

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The star of 'Flying Tigers'... none other than the Duke himself...


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Several P-40 'replicas' were built for the film. They were truly horrible looking,
but probably convincing enough for a 1940s film audience. Though powered
by automobile engines, they could do no more than taxi.


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"Look Captain Jim! Looky! Wham-Wham!"

"Termites..."


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Three Curtiss test pilots flew brand-spankin-new P-40Fs for the film.
Left to right: Dan Reid, Herb Fisher, and Dick Griffin.

I believe they called themselves the 'Fire Ball Squadron', or something similar; note
the patches on their flight jackets. I had some more detailed info about all of this,
obtained during a discussion on a forum or maybe Facebook, but it went *POOF*
with my old PC, so I'll have to track down the source again one of these days.


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This shot shows Herb Fisher in the cockpit of one of the P-40Fs. They were flown from
Curtiss Factory #2 at the Buffalo Airport on Genesee Street in Cheektowaga, NY.


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P-40F #70, possibly the same ship shown in the above photo, cavorts in Western New York skies...


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Here's a small selection of screengrabs from the flick...

More info about this flick can be found on this page of IMDb...

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