Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines

Continuity mistake: When the German colonel crash lands in the Channel, he first hangs directly under his upside-down plane before he has to let go, and the plane zooms in a straight line away from him. But as he resurfaces in the foreground, the plane comes in from the background's left before landing in the water.

Continuity mistake: The number of tail fins on the "American" aircraft changes from two to three depending on the shot.

Continuity mistake: In some scenes the "Antoinette" flown by the British flyer has authentic, thin "wing warping" wings. In other scenes it has thick modern glider wings with ailerons. This was done because the authentic machine wasn't very airworthy and was modified during the shooting.

Continuity mistake: When Sir Percy attempts to spy the other fliers from the hangar roof, he uses a ladder to get to the top. But when Dubois startles him and he slides off the roof, the ladder on the roof slope is gone.

Continuity mistake: When Gerd Fröbe is teaching the new pilot, a car is approaching and the pilot crashes vertically through the bottom of the plane. In the first shot his vest is up and in the return shot his vest is down, still stuck in the plane.

Paul Moortgat

Continuity mistake: When Stuart Whitman is attempting to fix a broken left wing spar on his aircraft with Sarah Miles at the controls, in one long-wide shot, Whitman suddenly appears on the right wing and then in the next shot, he's back on the left wing.

Continuity mistake: The Avro Triplane goes back and forth between using the authentic four-blade metal-and plywood propeller from the era and a two-blade massive wood propeller. The reason is, the producers originally tried to use the historic designs as much as possible, but had to change some things in the course of the shooting because the originals proved to be not airworthy enough.

Doc

Continuity mistake: When the German colonel crash lands in the Channel, he first hangs directly under his upside-down plane before he has to let go, and the plane zooms in a straight line away from him. But as he resurfaces in the foreground, the plane comes in from the background's left before landing in the water.

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Trivia: The conflict between Oberst von Holstein and Dubois partly stems from the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), in which France was defeated and the German Empire formed.

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