The Spanish Civil War was in many ways a proving ground for the weapons and tactics that would be used in far more vast ways all over Europe just a few years later, and dive-bombers in particular gained much attention there thanks to the exploits of the Legion Kondor. Vultee’s V-72 dive bomber was an attempt to an aircraft in the class of the Ju 87 Stuka, and the type was selected for production by the British, who in 1940 desperately needed combat aircraft.
Vultee was to build the type as the Vengeance Mk IIB for the RAF, while those license-built by Northrop would be Vengeance Mk Is. These initial orders were supplemented by US Lend-Lease supplied Mk IAs and IIIs, these receiving the US designation A-31. The US aircraft were not used operationally, although the XA-31B flew with a prototype Wasp Major engine, the XA-31B had a R-3350-18, and the five YA-31Cs tested R-3350-17s for the B-29 program.
Special Hobby has issued a 1/72 A-35B kit, with USAAF, French, RAF, and Australian marking options.
