Several scenes during the cross-Pacific flight of the "China Clipper" show "Hawaii Clipper" on the nose of the airplane.
The Airplane Designer's (Emmett Vogan) left hand moves from his side to his left jaw and back during his meeting with Dave Logan (Pat O'Brien).
The position of Hap Stuart's hand changes position in a scene with Dave Logan.
The character names of Lyle Moraine and Dennis Moore are switched in the end credits. Moore was the co-pilot and Moraine the engineer.
When the plane lands in Buenos Aires with llamas by the runway, the side of the plane has "PAA" for Pan American Airways, instead of the fictitious "TransOcean Airways" used in the film.
When the China Clipper is taxiing out for the first flight from San Francisco, and in several shots thereafter, the side clearly shows Pan American Airways System instead of TransOcean Airways used in the film.
The film begins on the day that Dave Logan (Pat O'Brien) arrives back in New York by ship which was also the same day that Charles Lindburgh had a ticket tape parade following his May, 1927 nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris which took place on June 14, 1927. Later that same day, Logan quits his job with James Horn & Co. Importers in order to go back to aviation by starting an airline flying between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. which he established in conjunction with the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia... which had taken place the year before, running from May 31 to November 30, 1926.
The film begins in 1927, and proceeds slowly forward thru the next few years, but the fashions and hairstyles of Beverly Roberts and Marie Wilson are strictly and consistently 1936 from beginning to end.
(at around 11 mins) As Dave Logan (Pat O'Brien) and his wife Jean (Beverly Roberts) lay on the bed, the camera rig shadow can be seen moving over them as the camera zooms in.
When the "China Clipper" is depicted as landing at Midway, there are mountains in the background. The atoll is actually very flat. Its highest elevation is 43 feet.
During the final flight to China, the dates on the Alameda office wall progress day to day, from November 26th to 30th, but no account is made for the International Date Line. If the contract with Portugal for landing rights in Macao stated arrival must be by midnight, November 30th, the plane would've been late by 1 full day. (It's possible the American copy of the contract stated November 30th, while the Portuguese copy stated December 1st, but this isn't clearly stated in the film, as it is an unnecessary detail most Americans of the 1930s wouldn't be aware of.)