'The Hollywood Reporter' announced in April 1952 that some filming for this movie was shot on location in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
'The Hollywood Reporter' announced in July 1951 that actor Johnny Sands would be appearing in this picture but Sands is not credited as being in the film's cast.
'The Los Angeles Times' announced in July 1951 that this movie was going to be filmed in Canada. The picture did not end up shooting in Canada.
According to "Daily Variety" in July 1953, this film was called "Eagles of the Fleet" in the UK, as "Flat Top" was an American term for aircraft carriers that was not well known in the UK.
According to "The Los Angeles Times" in July 1951, this film was to be the first production of Walter Wanger's independent production company, releasing through Allied Artists / Monogram. However, Wanger did not in the end make this film; his debut for this company was Battle Zone.
Much of the film was shot aboard the US Navy aircraft carrier Princeton, whose hull number (CVA-37, later CVA-27, CVS-37 and LPH-5) can be clearly seen. The Princeton was a 27,100-ton Ticonderoga-class carrier that was commissioned in November 1945 and decommissioned in June 1949, due to US Defense Department budget cuts, but was later recommissioned for service during the Korean War. She was finally decommissioned, taken apart and sold for scrap in May 1971. It was built at the Philadelphia (PA) Navy Yard in 1945 and was posted to the Atlantic Ocean until June 1946, when she was deployed to the Pacific Theatre of War.
The climactic battle scene is actually footage of the Battle of Leyte Gulf (10/23-10/26/44), which occurred before the carrier this film was shot on, The USS Princeton, was built.
The film premiered on Armistice Day (Nov. 11) of 1952 in the harbor of San Diego (CA) aboard the USS Princeton, on which the film was mostly shot.
The film utilized real color aerial combat footage.
The film's title "Flat Top" is an informal term for an aircraft carrier as they have a long flat-top deck design for the enabling of aircraft to take-off and land. It is on one that most of this film is predominantly set.
This film utilized actual newsreel footage edited into the movie.
This movie's opening prologue states: "We desire to express grateful appreciation to the Department of the United States Navy for the cooperation which was extended on the production of this picture. We especially salute the men and officers of the USS Princeton on whose ship many of the sequences were filmed."