tom hulce's role?

Yes, this is based upon the crash of one of his friends.
He then wrote a book on it. St Exe was part of the aeropostale band of brothers who flew the South Atlantic from Marseille to Argentina in the 30's. They also flew the internal routes from BA to Santiago, a very dangerous route.

St. Ex was a famous award winning writer as well as pilot as well as an inventor holding 10 patents. He was also something of a tragic figure. You can read and extensive account of Guillaumet's crash by St. Ex in his book "Wind, Sand, and Stars" as well as a similar accident to himself and mechanic when crashing in Iran in an air race from Paris to Saigon which almost took both their lives trying to walk to civilization. He never returned from a reconnaissance flight in 1940 during the war. In 2008 a researcher located the German pilot, age 86, who tearfully admitted that he was the fighter pilot that shot down St. Ex. He had grown up as a young boy reading and loving the books of Saint-Exupery and didn't know it was him until he returned to his base.

If you have a crush on Tom Hulce, you will fall in love with St. Ex's writings.

Sorry - 1944, not 1940.