Plot hole: Before the race starts, Sir Percy intends to sabotage some of the other fliers. He announces to Courtney that he had lured Dubois away by giving him the address of Courtney's daughter, but later, when the race starts, there is nothing wrong with Dubois' machine even though Sir Percy had the chance.
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965)
1 plot hole - chronological order
Directed by: Ken Annakin
Starring: James Fox, Sarah Miles, Stuart Whitman, Alberto Sordi
Factual error: The "American" aircraft is really a British design called a Bristol Boxkite.
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Suggested correction: Why is this an error? The "American" aircraft was fictional (there was no such thing as the "Phoenix Flyer") so they could have used anything to represent it. The design they used was known to work and was safe. The original Boxkite was actually a British version of The Farman and was similar in appearance the the American Curtiss.
The American pilot, while talking to the movie's heroine, states that his plane is a Curtiss. Check the scene in the restaurant, the night before he saves the German plane with the damaged tail. I tend to think the "Phoenix Flyer" was the name of that individual plane, and not the model of aircraft. That would mean that the pilot of the plane indirectly said that his plane was of American manufacture, as Curtiss was an American company.
Another interesting note is that in the scene with the runaway German plane, Orville Newton's plane is being wheeled out of the hangar, which has a "Bristol Company" sign over the doors. They "just happen" to be borrowing space in the hangar owned by the company that made the original Bristol Boxkites! It's a meaningless detail, but fun that they arranged it that way.
Count Emilio Ponticelli: Like-a Caesar, we go to England.
Trivia: In the beginning of the movie there is a reference to a Frenchman who had crossed the Channel by plane in the previous year (1909). The man meant is Louis Blériot, who flew from Calais to Dover in his famous craft 'Blériot XI' in 37 minutes. Again it was a competition race, for a 1000 Pounds set by the London Daily Mail.
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