# Anybody else souped for "Flyboys"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 17, 2006, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053 "2006-09-17T09:45:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/21 "2006-09-17T23:36:35Z")
> [@a35362](#):
>
> [oh-so-slight hijack]
>
> Why did they paint bullseye-type insignia on their planes??
>
> [/o-s-s hijack]
It’s called a [roundel](http://www.answers.com/topic/roundel). Scroll down a bit.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/22 "2006-09-17T23:43:02Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#):
>
> Depends on how well all that CGI works on the big screen. I’d rather see actual footage of actual replicas, normally, but I’m easy that way. Yep, going.
See, I’m not convinced they can do it. (And as I said, they looked pretty bad on the trailer.) Compare _Tora! Tora! Tora!_ with _Pearl Harbor_. (Um… the flying, not the story. Don’t get me started on the story.) The former used real aircraft, and the flying scenes looked very realistic. The latter used a lot of CGI and the flying scenes looked computer-generated. It seems that CGI artists don’t know how aircraft fly. They’re too close together, and they move wrong. (Not to mention the Zero flying between ships, and the guy blasting away at it with a 20mm canon and missing – and also missing the ship moored 50 feet away!)
> [@Incubus](#):
>
> And the scene with the guy bailing out of his airplane (no parachute?! :eek: ) gave me chills. Must be pretty crazy to be flying one of those planes, knowing that if something goes wrong, you’re pretty much farked ☹
It was thought that if pilots had parachutes, they would bail instead of fight. Apparently they didn’t consider the considerable cost of training, and the experience a seasoned pilot might bring to a fight. :rolleyes: (Balloon crews had parachutes though.)
> [@a35362](#):
>
> Why did they paint bullseye-type insignia on their planes??
[Roundel](http://www.answers.com/topic/roundel) (emphasis provided on the bit that seems to answer the question):
> [@](#):
>
> The first use of a roundel on military aircraft was during the First World War by the French Air Force. The chosen design was the French national cockade, which consisted of a blue-white-red emblem mirroring the colours of the Flag of France. Similar national cockades were designed and adopted for use as aircraft roundels by their allies. **The British Royal Flying Corps (RFC) abandoned their original painted Union Flags because they looked too much like the German cross.** Instead, British aircraft roundels were designed to use the French colours in reverse, red-white-blue.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2006, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/23 "2006-09-17T23:44:28Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> It’s called a [roundel](http://www.answers.com/topic/roundel). Scroll down a bit.
Dammit, **Silliness**! :mad:
😉
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2006, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/24 "2006-09-17T23:52:05Z")
That’s what you get for trying to give a complete, total answer to someone’s question! 😃
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2006, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/25 "2006-09-18T00:52:34Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Cool. Thank you. Ignorance has been fought today!
Phew, I almost walked into another [Dorie Miller embarassment there](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2757736&postcount=22) (I was corrected later in the thread).
> [@Terrifel](#):
>
> Bah. _Red Baron_, starring Rutger Hauer, was released in 1982 in my personal alternate universe. But I’ll probably see Flyboys anyway.
Our universes intersect - in mine in 1983, Hauer starred in _Batman_.
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### Author:  [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2006, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/26 "2006-09-18T03:22:55Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Cool. Thank you. Ignorance has been fought today!
It has but one black pilot out of how many thousands justifies a black pilot in the movie? I’m betting the producers know nothing about Bullard.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2006, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/27 "2006-09-18T03:45:22Z")
> [@Team of Scientists](#):
>
> “from the makers of Independence Day and The Patriot.” Not sure if they meant the producer or director
Producer. Dean Devlin.
If you want some clips and behind the scenes info, check out [these clips](http://comingsoon.net/flyboys/). I think it looks pretty good, but it’s still not quite there.
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### Author:  [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2006, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/28 "2006-09-18T12:47:41Z")
I’m just impressed the entertainment industry recognizes that there was another war _besides_ World War II.
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### Author:  [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2006, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/29 "2006-09-18T13:31:14Z")
> [@DeadlyAccurate](#):
>
> I’m just impressed the entertainment industry recognizes that there was another war _besides_ World War II.
I’m still waiting for a movie about the Spanish-American War or the Franco-Prussian War. They’ve covered most of the others.
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### Author:  [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2006, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/30 "2006-09-18T15:48:04Z")
> [@mks57](#):
>
> [http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/23110283/m/2071032974](http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/23110283/m/2071032974)
>
> Eugene Jacques Bullard, black American who flew in the French Flying Corps.
Thank you for this info – what a cool story and an even cooler life this man lead.
Married a Countess, fought the Nazi’s with the French Underground. He was evidently a truly remarkable individual.
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### Author:  [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/31 "2006-09-18T19:28:05Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#):
>
> Thank you for this info – what a cool story and an even cooler life this man lead.
>
> Married a Countess, fought the Nazi’s with the French Underground. He was evidently a truly remarkable individual.
Agreed, however I’ll bet that this isn’t him being portrayed, and that this particular character doesn’t make it to the end of the movie. Just a hunch
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/32 "2006-09-18T20:04:52Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#):
>
> So I like that there’s a WWI film coming out. But the TV trailer I saw look really, really bad. The airplanes don’t move right, and they look like they came out of a video game.
What I noticed first was that the battle choreography (for lack of a better term) didn’t look right at all. It was only a brief clip, but I saw way too many planes in too small a space.
There are very few directors who can do a good action sequence like this. John’s comment about video games is right on. They seem to think we need 8,000 planes buzzing around before we’ll notice anything. (This was one of the two big problems with _Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow_.) Great action sequences are smaller than that. Think of a scene like the final submarine battle in _The Hunt for Red October_, or the car chase in _Bullitt_. We need to see who’s in the fight, where they are and what they’re trying to do. What we get instead is like a swarm of bees; plenty of activity, but nothing of interest.
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### Author:  [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/33 "2006-09-18T20:20:04Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#):
>
> I misread your post and went off looking for it, you bastige! Anyway, it looks like [_Der Rote Baron_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365675/) (2006) is in production.
>
> I hope they get the ending right. I read _The Red Baron’s Last Flight_, a forensic study of his final battle, and I found the information convincing.
>
> It’s disappointing though that I procrastinated.
Did you see the PBS Nova show “Who Killed the Red Baron?” I believe they re-ran it sometime last August?
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/34 "2006-09-19T16:39:58Z")
> [@Incubus](#):
>
> …did they really carry a pistol just for that?
Not ENTIRELY for that–if they landed in enemy territory they were supposed to put up at least a token fight before being captured–but yep. And yep, they were crazy but it beat drowning in the trenches.
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### Author:  [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2006, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/35 "2006-09-19T17:10:21Z")
The only airworthy original Sopwith Camel was on ebay (no longer appears to be the case)
> **[Unique, Original Sopwith Camel Hits eBay | Aero-News Network](https://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=de3e6d4f-0b24-490b-b6eb-4d3d7fc75ef0)**
>
> Would You Pay $1.5 Million For The Only One Out There? 'After the turn of the century, in the clear blue skies over Germany, came a roar and a thunde| Published: Mon, Dec 05, 2005 | Aero-News Network
biplanes + zeppelin = me interested in movie.
But I agree that something isn’t quite right in the preview.
And it will probably be Pearl Harbor : WWII :: Flyboys : WWI
Brian
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/36 "2006-09-19T18:06:21Z")
An interesting article on the producer’s long fight to get it made:
[http://www.courant.com/news/local/northeast/hc-flyboys0917.artsep17,0,5596151.story?coll=hc-headlines-northeast](http://www.courant.com/news/local/northeast/hc-flyboys0917.artsep17,0,5596151.story?coll=hc-headlines-northeast)
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/37 "2006-09-19T20:19:55Z")
Director = Tony Bill. That’s good.
Producer = Dean Devlin. That’s ass.
Wait and see.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/38 "2006-09-19T23:39:09Z")
I’m not sure what “souped” means, but I don’t think I am. I’ll probably catch it on cable in a few months.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2006, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/39 "2006-09-19T23:49:26Z")
> [@mks57](#):
>
> I’m still waiting for a movie about the Spanish-American War or the Franco-Prussian War. They’ve covered most of the others.
[Rough Riders](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118453/)
[Champ d’Honneur](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092739/).
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### Author:  [@Curate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Curate)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2006, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-souped-for-flyboys/373053/40 "2006-09-20T00:12:12Z")
I looking forward to it too. Did I read somewhere that they built a few flying replicas for some of the scenes? I’d personally rather see decently done CGI airplanes than real modern aircraft with a WWI coat of paint – the French flyers go bravely into battle in their Pitts Specials.
I’ve only seen the trailers that play on TV, but I have to say that my fleeting impression is that the skies in the movie seem to be populated with a great many red triplanes. I hope the protagonists don’t find themselves facing the Red Baron EVERY time they fly.
Here’s a question for the experts – I believe the Fokker Triplane was introduced at the very end of 1917 and by the summer of 1918 they were pretty much out of service. If I’ve identified the French planes correctly, they are Nieuports, but are they the correct model that would have been used at that period?
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