As part of the advance publicity, Columbia Pictures sponsored a cross-country Boston to Los Angles tour featuring a 1911 Locomobile car.
After Orville Wright's closest associate (Fred C. Kelly) found out about the theme of the movie, he (with Orville' s frequent input) launched an extensive letter writing campaign to the management at Columbia Pictures in an attempt to get them to abandon the project. He called it a "falsification of history". All of this back story is chronicled in the biography "Quest for Flight:John J.Montgomery and the Dawn of Aviation in the West" (University of Oklahoma Press).
Montgomery was killed on October 31, 1911, when his glider, the Evergreen, crashed. His head hit a bolt on the glider, just behind an ear, penetrating his brain. His death was instantaneous, despite the more sentimental ending shown in the film which was not a critical success upon its release.
"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on
November 11, 1946 with Glenn Ford and Janet Blair reprising their film roles.