Essay On Flyboys

Flyboys is a movie which is fairly accurate for the most part but there are still few inaccuracies which are why it is considered only fairly accurate. Flyboys does a good job in an accurate portrayal of the Lafayette Escadrille and the other fighter pilots values, beliefs, training and the toll of tragedies on them mentally, but when it comes down to their military strategy, airplanes and different modes of transportation, it begins to become somewhat inaccurate.
From the beginning of the movie you can begin to see the men’s values and the heavy drinking did and also promoted. This is very accurate as alcoholism was a very big problem throughout WW1. Every evening after the men had been out fighting they would all go to the bar and drink

First off, the difference in color of German aircrafts versus the colors of the French aircrafts that they flew. In Flyboys, most of the Germans flew red aircrafts while the French were mainly seen in grey aircrafts, this was mainly for the reason of the audience being able to tell them apart. In WW1, most of the fighter planes used by the German and the French were very similar in color and harder to tell the difference between (Aerial Warfare). Another inaccuracy in the aircrafts is that the ones used in Flyboys had radial engines rather than what they actually had during WW1 which were rotary engines. When the aircrafts are shown flying the engine case was not moving along with the propellor which shows that they were radial engines. Rotary engines were used in WW1 because of the fact that they were air cooled which made them lighten and more efficient as they didn’t need any other sources of cooling besides air (Aircraft Engines). The last inaccuracy with the fighter planes in Flyboys was the movie failing to show how often new aircrafts were introduced. In WW1 one side would come out with a new plane which would give them an advantage for a short time and within a few months the other side would also give them an advantage and it tended to go back and forth throughout the war (C N