“Red Tails” is but the first in a long line of movies depicting knights of the air. From 1927’s “Wings” to 1986’s glamorous and jingoistic “Top Gun,” the movies have placed us as co-pilot in dozens of pictures. Here are five swooping, roaring, smoking titans of the genre.

1. Battle of Britain (1969)

The real Battle of Britain was fought in 1940 and is famous for being the first major military campaign fought solely in the air. It’s also where Hitler’s Luftwaffe stumbled for the first time in a long series of triumphs as Britain’s Royal Air Force beat back Nazi bombers time and time again. The film is a huge production bankrolled by Harry Saltzman who, along with Albert R. Broccoli, gave us the James Bond franchise.

Despite a cast consisting of virtually every major British thespian of note, the film’s real stars are the tremendous aerial sequences. The producers assembled almost 100 aircraft to re-create history as British Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes (piloted by actors like Robert Shaw and Michael Caine) duke it out with German Stukas and Me-109s.

2. Memphis Belle (1990)

After the British stopped the Germans in 1940, it took until 1943 or so for American and British forces to launch the Combined Bomber Offensive. The primary American muscle was provided by the B-17 Flying Fortress, and the most famous of these was the Memphis Belle, the first B-17 to fly 25 missions, earning its crew a return home.

This is an old-fashioned movie with a wildly diverse crew (poetic Irish radioman, tough New York waist gunner, New Orleans-singer tail gunner, smooth-talking bombardier). The movie depicts them on their 25th mission over the German port city of Bremen. Director Michael Caton-Jones isn’t a great match for the material, but the movie is absolutely beautiful to look at. David Strathairn turns in a marvelous performance as the commander of the bomb group of which the Belle is but one small part.

3. Flyboys (2006)

This flawed film that depicts young Americans flying for France in World War I is a great example of how digital effects have made anything possible for producers. The time is 1916, and while America isn’t officially at war against the Kaiser’s hordes, brave American boys, enamored with a brand new form of warfare and craving glory, find a home in the Lafayette Escadrille, a French squadron consisting of French airplanes with American pilots.

James Franco veers between taciturn and stoned in his acting choices as our hero, Blaine, and his supporting cast isn’t a great deal better. Jean Reno, the only French actor American producers know by name, is on hand as the squadron commander to provide an actual French accent. The aerial sequences are nicely done, though, with the Escadrille’s Nieuports duking it out with the Fokker Tri Deckers of the German Luftstreitkräfte. There’s also a Zeppelin-busting sequence that’s worth the price of rental.

4. The Blue Max (1966)

The Blue Max was the nickname for the Pour le Mérite, the highest award that Germany gave out to soldiers in World War I. To get it, a pilot needed to shoot down 20 enemy planes. In director John Guillermin’s aerial epic, George Peppard (a man actually born with white hair) stars as Bruno Stachel, a foot soldier who gets fed up with the trenches and becomes a fighter pilot. Stachel wants a Blue Max.

James Mason is his commanding general, who sees in Stachel a hero to help crumbling German morale. Ursula Andress is the general’s wife, who sees in Stachel a pretty sweet stud she can ride to exhaustion. The movie’s aerial scenes were filmed over lush Irish countryside and are terrific, with planes swooping under bridges and between trees. The Andress scenes are also terrific because Andress, the first Bond girl, is hot, hot, hot.

5. Hell’s Angels (1930)

If you have a film so vast that it seems that completing it might be impossible, it’s best to have a director/producer with limitless financial resources and a (literal) mania for perfection. Aviation pioneer Howard Hughes was a Hollywood neophyte when he brought World War I dogfighting into American theaters in a big way with his sprawling tale of two brothers who enlist in the British Royal Flying Corps and soon find action over the Western Front.

As depicted in Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator,” Hughes did indeed do much of the aerial work himself and crashed a plane on at least one occasion. Three other pilots died during filming. The movie might be most notable for helping launch two movie careers. Kansas City’s own Jean Harlow was cast as love interest Helen, and director James Whale (“The Bride of Frankenstein”) was brought in to direct the dialogue sequences, where director Hughes was on much shakier ground than when he was filming his dogfights.