Starbuck's use of her thumb to block the sun in order to see if Scar was coming had originally been done by Gregory H. 'Pappy' Boyington in World War Two, where he discovered that doing so would allow him to see incoming Zeroes.
Scar employs a tactic that first became well known during World War I. The notorious "Red Baron" Baron Manfred von Richthofen, is reputed to have shot down eighty allied planes, which is far more than any other ace of the war. His tactic is exactly the same as that of Scar: He would stay out of sight either in the clouds or positioned directly between the sun and the opposing aircraft, waiting for the odds to be in his favor before striking. Most of his victims didn't know he was there until it was too late. It is worth noting that von Richthofen did not die at the hands of another pilot. From the type of bullet that struck him, it was determined that he was killed by a rifleman taking a wild shot at him when swooping too close to the ground over a battlefield.
The beer stein that serves as a trophy was included in the package with the Kat action figure.
Apollo refers to Flattop dying on his 1,000th landing. This was in Bastille Day (2004) when other pilots were parading him in a cart in celebration when a rocket fell from a rack and ignited, killing him and twelve other pilots.
Perhaps the most definitive action film about dogfighting during World War II was Battle of Britain (1969). In that film, among other things, a fresh-faced new pilot survives long enough to become a seasoned veteran while other new pilots would either panic or forget to follow protocol and die during their first mission. This is reflected in Kat's story.