It's a WW2 game, kind of like IL-2 Sturmovik. The player chooses what country to fight for, and is givin date appropriate planes from that country to fly given the start year, 193x. It is not possible, therefore to fly Zeros as Americans, or Me109s as Italians. The maps are not always so small. The general game play is to use ground attack to achieve map domination in most situations. There's dogfighting to keep the attackers alive. If the enemy base is destroyed, it's an automatic win. It is possible to unlock upgrades to your plane by giving it +"x" damage to machine guns for example. There are different models of the planes and if you lose one, you cannot use the same model again in the same battle, getting shot down in an upgraded P-36C, respawns in basic P-36A or B, your choice. Unlocks include new plane models, paint schemes and slogans. You can buy the plane models if you want to, but otherwis it's free to play. 
  
Oh yeah, fly by 3rd person (chase) or cockpit.