Show Notes
The North American Aviation A-36 was a dive-bombing development of the Mustang I that had been specified by the British during the Second World War. The dive-bomber was ordered by the US Army Air Force to supplement their attack aircraft and saw service in the Mediterranean and the China-Burma-India theatres. But the A-36's story is overshadowed by its fighter sister, and matters get even more complicated when it comes to the aircraft's name, which it never officially had.
Author and historian Matthew Willis returns to The Aviation Show to discuss the development and service of the A-36 and champion the Allison-engined Mustangs, which were pretty ace.
To enter our giveaway for a personalised copy of Matthew Willis' Mustang: The Untold Story, send an email to [email protected] with the subject line 'Not An Apache' to be considered in the draw. A winner will be chosen at random and announced on Thursday, 26th February 2026. The winner will be notified by email. If no response is received within 72 hours, the draw will be remade, and the new winner announced. There is no monetary alternative to the prize of one hardback copy of 'Mustang: The Untold Story'.
Buy Mustang: The Untold Story by Matthew Willis in the UK through The Aviation Show Bookshop.org. Every sale supports independent bookshops, and 10% of each sale supports us. https://uk.bookshop.org/a/11015/9781913295882
In the US, you can import Mustang: The Untold Story through Amazon (not an affiliate link) here: https://a.co/d/0bE8Bb7f
----------------------------------------------------- 🛫 Join us on Patreon! Join from just £3 + VAT a month to get ad-free episodes, chat with Matt, and receive a personalised welcome pack. Click here for more info: https://www.patreon.com/theaviationshow
----------------------------------------------------- ✈️Get the latest from the Pima Air and Space Museum by following their socials! Website: https://pimaair.org/ https://www.facebook.com/PimaAirAndSpace https://www.instagram.com/pimaair https://www.youtube.com/c/PimaAirSpaceMuseum
Check out the Tucson Military Vehicle Museum here: https://www.tucsonmilitaryvehicle.org/
👕Get your aviation on with 909 Apparel today! Check out their website here: https://www.909apparel.com/ ----------------------------------------------------- The Aviation Show © 2026 by Matt Bone is licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International ----------------------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Aviation Show
On our recent journey through Ohio, we visited the WACO Museum in Troy, Ohio, and looked at the history of the WACO aircraft company and the museum’s preserved material from the original plant. We check out some early WACO aircraft, the wildly unsuccessful RPT trainer, and the wartime CG-4 Hadrian glider, including its construction, production, and combat use. We also cover later aircraft such as the Model 4, Model 9, and ATO, along with Harold Johnson’s “Red Baron” and several women pilots associated with WACO.
Join us as Jason Capra and the Vintage Wing Inc. team show us around 'Beach City Baby', a C-53 Skytrooper with an incredible history that takes in the early days of airlines in the United States, Air Transport Command's efforts in North Africa and her role in the growth of civil aviation in Ohio. She is getting a new set of wings, and you can find out how you can help too!
I promise this is the last video on autographs and signatures, but I recently bought a mostly lovely print of Frank Wootton's Typhoon Squadron, which had had all the signatures cut out of it. This led me down a rabbit hole of looking at the commoditisation of these signatures and autographs, where the very rarest are now sliced out and added to both new and old artwork, all in the name of "exclusivity". I mean, we look at a Rommel signature in this one...
Dr Philip W. Blood, author of 'Birds of Prey', joins us in this follow-up to our recent episode where I erased the noted Luftwaffe ace, Gunther Rall, signature, off of a print by Robert Taylor.
The final Convair B-36J Peacemaker ever built, 52-2827 'City of Fort Worth', has been moved to the @PimaAirSpaceMuseum restorations hangar for some TLC after nearly 20-years in the Arizona sun. Scott Marchand, the Pima Air and Space Museum's CEO, joins us from the cockpit of the B-36 to discuss what is going to happen over the coming months as the B-36 is stripped back to bare metal and then given many new coats of paint.