Fact1: VB-3 dive bombing squadron During arrives in wingover approach pre-war operations from aircraft carrier off Hawaii, Fact2: doctor decides to become naval flight surgeon up being trained at U.S. Naval Air Station in San Diego by number of instructors including nemesis, Fact3: Lee On completion of is posted as assistant flight training, Fact4: senior flight surgeon is working to find solution for altitude sickness, Fact5: Lee experiments with pneumatic belt keep blood above heart successfully flight tests himself
Output: During prewar operations from an aircraft carrier off Hawaii, the VB3 dive bombing squadron bearing the High Hat emblem of Bombing Squadron 14 arrives in a wingover approach to Honolulu; one of its pilots blacks out during the high speed dive and crashes. At the base hospital in Honolulu, Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake Fred MacMurray is concerned that Lieutenant Swede Larson Louis Jean Heydt will not survive. U.S. Navy doctor, Lieutenant Doug Lee Errol Flynn, convinces the Senior Surgeon, Commander Martin Moroni Olsen, to operate, but the pilot dies on the operating table. After Blake blames Lee for rushing the surgery, the doctor decides to become a naval flight surgeon and winds up being trained at the U.S. Naval Air Station in San Diego by a number of instructors, including his nemesis, Blake. A subplot involving the romantic adventures of Blake, Lee and a group of mechanics, introduces divorcee Linda Fisher Alexis Smith as a love interest for the two rivals, Blake and Lee. On completion of his flight training, Lee is posted as an assistant to a senior flight surgeon, Commander Lance Rogers Ralph Bellamy, who is working to find a solution for altitude sickness that affects pilots in dive bombers. Lee flies with Blake as his pilot in a cameraequipped aircraft and observes Blake blacking out. He experiments with a pneumatic belt that will keep blood above the heart and successfully flight tests it himself, although he disobeys regulations in flying by himself. Even though he has qualified as a Naval Aviator, Lee is still not trusted, considered a grandstand player and a vulture, always there when someone crashes. His judgment over pilots ability to fly is further resented when he grounds a pilot, Lieutenant Tim Griffin Regis Toomey, who is suffering from chronic fatigue. In anger, Griffin resigns from the Navy and joins the Royal Air Force in Canada, but visits his old squadron when he is ferrying a new fighter from the Los Angeles factory. On his return flight, Griffin suffers from fatigue and dies attempting to land at an emergency field, completely misjudging his approach. Blake finally accepts that the flight surgeon is trying to help pilots survive dangerous high altitude flying, and volunteers as a guinea pig pilot for aerial experiments. The first flight test of a pressurized cabin nearly ends in disaster when the aircraft ices up and Blake passes out, forcing Lee to take over. After ground testing of a new invention jointly developed by Lee and Blake, a pressure suit, Blake is told that he did not pass his most recent flight physical and will be grounded. Taking off without permission, Blake carries out the aerial testing of the new suit anyway, but when the oxygen regulator fails, he loses consciousness and fatally crashes. His notes are salvaged from the wreckage, however, and mass production of the suit can begin. In the final scene, Blakes selfsacrifice is acknowledged while Rogers and Lee are honored for their pioneering work in protecting pilots flying at high altitude. An ongoing motif involving gold cigarette cases from the National Air Races carried by each of the three High Hats squadron leaders continues into the final sequence. Blake is the last of the three to perish in service and Lee throws his cigarette case from one of the squadrons airplanes out over the Pacific as a final tribute.