The pilots are a mixed bunch, motivated by money (they receive a bounty for each aircraft shot down) or just by the thrill of aerial combat.

When the Japanese raid the Flying Tigers' airbase, the new arrival goes after them, taking up a P-40 fighter without permission, not realizing until too late that it has no ammunition.

In the resulting dogfight, Hap is unable to judge distances accurately and winds up dying in a collision with a Japanese aircraft he is pursuing.

The date is Sunday, December 7, 1941, the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, bringing America into World War II.

The target is so heavily defended that the only chance of success is to fly in very low with a single, unescorted bomber and hope not to be spotted; it is likely a suicide mission.

Back at the airbase, Jim finds that Woody has willed his leather jacket to fellow pilot Reardon, and his address book to the squadron as a whole.

[6] While archival combat footage was used in some of the scenes, miniatures were used to portray the early model Curtiss P-40 WarhawkB/C Tomahawks that the Tigers flew on screen.

John Wayne's character arrives at the Tigers' airbase on the one-off Capelis XC-12, a failed 1933 twin-engine transport aircraft that found new life at RKO as a non-flying movie prop.

[8] The American and Japanese aerial combat footage in Flying Tigers were actually miniatures being pulled along on wires off-screen, created by Republic's special effect experts Howard and Theodore Lydecker.

Flying Tigers's special effects were nominated for an Academy Award, but many voters did not realize that some of the "aircraft" were actually miniatures, thereby passing the film by for the Oscar.

In 1942, due to wartime priorities that prohibited the use of U. S. military aircraft for Hollywood productions, Republic Studios approached Curtiss-Wright in Buffalo to recreate the aerial battle sequences required for Flying Tigers.

[9] A number of P-40F fighter aircraft waiting for delivery to the U. S. Army Air Forces were repainted in American Volunteer Group (AVG) markings, and with the aid of Curtiss test pilots, flew in the film.

[12] Republic Pictures provided a larger budget than normal for the film, borrowing John Carroll and David Miller from MGM.

Unlike the film characters, all AVG pilots were recruited from active or reserve U. S. military forces, were in Asia with the tacit approval of the U. S. government, and did not see combat before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

While descending to the ground in his parachute, he was strafed and killed by a Japanese fighter (Christman was hit in several places and probably died as a bullet passed through the back of his neck).

The New York Times said, "On a patch-work story frame, Republic Pictures has strung a first-rate aerial circus chock-full of exciting dogfights.