Stachel meeting a young Hermann Göring, who has assumed command of the vaunted "Flying Circus" after the death of its commander, Manfred von Richthofen. Production Geoge Peppard's casting was announced in April 1965. The job of directing was given to John Guillermin, who had impressed Fox's studio head, Darryl F Zanuck, with two lower budgeted films he made for Fox. The film was shot in Ireland, at Bray, Co Wicklow's Ardmore Studios. The budget was originally $3 million. Fox spent $250,000 on building nine war planes. Peppard learned to fly for the film and later called working with Guillermin "the most exciting creative experience I've ever had." Director of photography Douglas Slocombe was hospitalized for three weeks with an injured back. Elmo Williams said Guillermin was "indifferent to people getting hurt as long as he got realistic action...a hard-working, overly critical man whom the crew disliked." Stunt flying The majority of the aircraft used in the film were converted Tiger Moths and Stampe SV.4s. Two Pfalz D.IIIs were produced (by two separate companies) for the film, along with three Fokker D.VIIs and two Fokker Dr.I triplanes. Other German aircraft were represented by repainted Tiger Moths and Stampes. Two SE 5 flying replicas were made by the Miles Aircraft company at Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex, England. Other British aircraft were mocked-up trainers made into British S.E.5s. The German lozenge camouflage was not universal to all units at the time the story takes place (Spring 1918), but, in the film, aircraft of all German units are shown in this scheme. The Fokker Dr.I triplanes were purpose-built replicas. The Tiger Moth silhouette was more appropriate to British aircraft of the period, such as the S.E.5a (one of which Stachel shoots down during his first mission) and presents a good general impression of actual contemporary aircraft. The "death-trap" monoplane at the end of the film, known as the "Adler" (German for eagle) in the novel, may have been inspired by the Fokker E.V, which was a late-war monoplane design which did indeed rapidly gather a reputation for poor construction of the wing, resulting in several crashes before being modified and re-designated the Fokker D.VIII. In the film it is portrayed by Patrick Lindsay's Morane 230 Parasol trainer, with a faired-over front seat to simulate a monoplane fighter visually. The depictions of aerial combat in the film are particularly realistic. The aircraft ground scenes were