I don't know what movie you saw, but it wasn't flyboys :lol
The technical adviser for the script, costume and props was bang on. The CG dogfights were horrendous. The aircraft in WWI could not do any of the maneuvers I saw them do in that movie.
Supposedly they use bi-planes and put the sensors on them that they use for motion capture on actors in order to "map" the movements of aircraft. The problem was that the airplanes they used were modern aerobatic aircraft with 3X the horsepower and 1/4 the weight. :facepalm
----- Now back on topic about Red Tails.
Overal the movie was ok, but I think Tuskegee Airmen was a much better story. In Red Tails they went out of their way to put too many flaws into the main characters like blatant disregard for CoC (chain of command), alcoholism etc. Sure some of that happened in the war but not to that extreme. The dialogue and jokes were kind of cheesy at times (your more colored than me comes to mind), but it did make me smile.
The love story was a joke IMO and just didn't belong. If they wanted a "real" romance they should have made it feel important, all I kept thinking was 'when will we get back to the airplanes?'
As far as the technical side of the movie they did glaze over a lot of details. The real Tuskegee airmen went from P-40s to P47s then P-51 B/Cs and finally P-51Ds. They also had the pilots holding down the triggers far longer than they would have had ammo, but that's minor in the grand scheme.
The dog fighting was decently done overall IMO and the trailer scared me since it showed a Me262 being chased by a P-51D, but the movie showed the P-51 in a dive to catch the 262 which was more realistic. The loop and roll maneuver actually does work. When watching the trailer if you pause during the maneuver you can see that the P-51 puts down flaps (10 degrees or so) which is how the maneuver is possible. Flaps increase lift, but also greatly increase induced drag, but since induced drag is much lower at slow speeds it works out.
The CGI airplanes weren't badly done, but could have been better on some of the texture work.
Bottom line, if you want a good story and it includes the start of the Tuskegee to the end and scenes with real airplanes, watch "Tuskegee Airmen".
If you want a cool CGI movie with the occasional intermission... sorry i mean cheesy love story, then Red Tails.
P.S. I'm a licenced pilot and was the crew chief for CHAA (harvards.com) at airshows for many years, so I'm one the few that has not only been able to touch warbirds, but see them in flight and had the lucky chance to fly above a Lancaster Bomber near the CN tower /brag :lol
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