The Dawn Patrol is a 1930 American pre-Code World War I film starring Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

[4] The Dawn Patrol won the Academy Award for Best Story for John Monk Saunders, an American writer said to have been haunted by his inability to get into combat as a flyer with the U.S. Air Service.

The two aces of the squadron's "A Flight", Courtney and Scott, have come to hate the commanding officer, Brand, blaming him for sending new recruits directly into combat in inferior aircraft.

Principal photography began in February 1930, with exteriors shot at the Metropolitan Airport in Van Nuys, Newhall, and Sherwood Forrest in Southern California.

[Note 1] Another contentious issue later arose when both Howard Hawks and John Monk Saunders claimed ownership of the original idea behind the film.

[4]| Hawks attempted to create a realistic atmosphere, and assembled a variety of contemporary aircraft in a film squadron to shoot the flying scenes for The Dawn Patrol.

He primarily used rebuilt Nieuport 28s as the aircraft for the British squadron, and Travel Air 4000s (reconfigured for films and popularly known as "Wichita Fokkers")[7][8] for German fighters.

The scene in which Scott takes off with Courtney clinging to the wing switches to a shot of a Travel Air 4U Speedwing fitted with a round cowl over its Comet engine to resemble the Nieuports.

[11] According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $1,061,000 domestically and $563,000 internationally, making it the studio's third biggest hit of the year after Gold Diggers of Broadway and Sally.

[3] Studio brass was extremely reluctant to back the release because Hawks had insisted on realistic dialogue that was at odds with the dramatic tone that executives had demanded.

[16] When the Warner Bros. film catalog was sold, The Dawn Patrol aired on television and from Associated Artists Productions, in its retitled form, as Flight Commander.