Michael Trubshawe's character is addressed by Robert Morley as "Niven". Michael Trubshawe and David Niven were very close friends from when they served in the military garrison at Malta together and David Niven would call uncredited characters in his films "Trubshawe". So this was Trubshawe's way of returning the compliment.
Stuart Whitman's character Orvil Newton is possibly named after inventor Orville Wright who helped build the first airplane and scientist Sir Isaac Newton who made discoveries regarding gravity.
At approximately 1 hour & 25 minutes a board is seen listing 14 competitors. Number 1: Richard Mays. (Aircraft number 8) Number 2: Sir Percy Ware Armitage. (Aircraft number 12) Number 3: Orvil Newton. (Aircraft number 7) Number 4: Lieutnant Parsons. (Aircraft number 4) Number 5: Harry Popperwell. (Aircraft number 5) Number 6: Capt Rumpelstoss. (Aircraft number 11) Number 7: Mr Wallace. (Aircraft number unknown) Number 8: Charles Wade. (Aircraft number unknown) Number 9: Mr Yamamoto. (Aircraft number 1) Number 10: Count Emilio Ponticelli. (Aircraft number 2) Number 11: Henri Monteux. (Aircraft number unknown) Number 12: Pierre Dubois. (Aircraft number 9) Number 13: Mr Mac Dougall. (Aircraft number 6) Number 14: Harry Walton. (Aircraft number unknown) In only twice does the pilots number match the aircraft/race number. The four unknown pilots (Mr Wallace, Charles Wade, Henri Monteux & Harry Walton) must be the pilots of the four missing aircraft/race numbers (3, 10, 13 & 14)
Director and co-writer Ken Annakin had been working on an adventure film about transatlantic flight, when the producer's bankrutpcy aborted the production. He then made this film.
First full length feature film of Vernon Dobtcheff.
Most of the aerial scenes were filmed before 10 am each day when the air was least turbulent.
The 1910-era airplanes used in the film were replicas built using the authentic materials of the originals, but with slightly more powerful engines. About 20 planes were built at a cost of about 5,000 pounds each.
The are two real vintage aircraft to be seen in this film. The first is a 1910 Deperdussin Monoplane is seen "revving-up" on the ground when we first arrive at Brookley. The second is a 1912 Blackburn 'Type D' Monoplane, which seen on the ground at Brookley and Dover (Aircraft #6) it is the one swung out of the way of the runaway 'tailess' German biplane, just after it has crashed through the back of the "Ware-Armitage" hanger. The Blackburn is flown by Mr Mac Dougall, played by Gordon Jackson.
The beginning and ending sequences marked the final feature film appearences for Red Skelton.
The French entry in the race, flown by the character Pierre Dubois, is a replica of the "Demoiselle", designed by the Brazilian expatriate Alberto Santos-Dumont, who had been believed by the French to be the first to fly a powered aircraft, until Wilbur Wright & Orville Wright's demonstrations in 1908. The replica builders were faithful in constructing the Demoiselle, but no one could get it to leave the ground until it was discovered that Dumont had been a very small man who weighed only 85 pounds. A female pilot was hired. She successfully flew the plane throughout the filming.
The Passat Ornithopter airplane in this movie was given to Cole Palen for promoting this movie. It can now be seen at the Old Rhinebeck Areodrome.
Two of the replicas (the "1910 Bristol Boxkite" and the "1911 Roe IV Triplane") built for the film still fly across the English countryside as both are preserved in the "Shuttleworth Collection" based at Old Warden, Bedfordshire.