Welcome to The Aviation Show! The Aviation Show celebrates aviation and aerospace, from the first attempts of people jumping off things to humans being fired into space. If it flies, we will cover the story behind those flights and the people who made them happen. Brought to you in association with the Pima Air and Space Museum.
Getting 'Beach City Baby' Ready to Fly Again - C-53 Skytrooper Tour
Episode 137
Thursday, October 1, 2026 • Duration 43:43
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!
Check out all the latest Beach City Baby news via their website and socials below:
🛫 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
Selling History? How WWII Signatures Became a Cash Grab
Episode 136
Thursday, September 3, 2026 • Duration 14:33
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...
👕 I've just ordered in a new batch of 909 Apparel t-shirts for my holiday, so you best get your aviation too! Check out the 909 Apparel website here: https://www.909apparel.com/
🛫 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
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.
Phil and I delve into the truth about Luftwaffe complicity in the crimes of the Nazis during the Second World War and discuss the uncomfortable relationship with the regard to which those who survived were viewed.
Grab your copy of Phil's Birds of Prey: Hitler’s Luftwaffe, Ordinary Soldiers, and the Holocaust in Poland and War Comes to Aachen: The Nazis, Churchill and the 'Stalingrad of the West' at The Aviation Show Bookshop. 10% of every sale supports the show and independent bookshops.
You can listen to both parts of our Birds of Prey discussion with Dr. Philip Blood via the old History Hack podcast here on The Aviation Show website here: https://theaviation.show/hedge-hopping/
🛫 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:
Pima's B-36 Peacemaker Restoration Update
Episode 134
Thursday, August 6, 2026 • Duration 24:48
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.
Check out all the links to the Pima Air and Space Museum below!
Be sure to give Boneyard Safari a follow! Many thanks to Ramon Purcell for allowing use of his aerials and images in this episode.
🛫 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
Jimmy Stewart, Curtis LeMay, and the Selling of the Strategic Air Command
Episode 133
Thursday, July 30, 2026 • Duration 01:02:24
In 1955, Paramount Pictures released one of their tentpole VistaVision epics, Strategic Air Command, starring James Stewart and directed by his longtime collaborator, Anthony Mann. Strategic Air Command is peak, high-resolution, widescreen 1950s propaganda at its finest, and while not a great film (David and I argue about that aspect too!), its time and place in the building of the mythology of Curtis LeMay's US Air Force bombing arm offers a fascinating insight into the mindset of both LeMay and Jimmy Stewart.
David, the host of The Cold War channel on YouTube, joins me to bring our long-running Bluesky debate about this film to the channel and look at a film that had US military cooperation at a level that would make Michael Bay and Tom Cruise green with envy.
🛫 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
'Beyond Blue Sky' Director and SpaceShipOne Project Engineer Interview
Episode 132
Thursday, July 23, 2026 • Duration 01:15:10
The new documentary, Beyond Blue Sky: The Untold Story of the First Private Astronauts, tells the story of Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites journey into space. In this episode we are joined by the film's director, Kevin Curran, and SpaceShipOne's Project Engineer, Matt Stinemetze, to discuss this incredible project that went from Burt Rutan announcing that they were going to space to winning the $10m Ansari X Prize in 2004.
Beyond Blue Sky: The Untold Story of the First Private Astronauts is a fantastic documentary and is available now on Apple TV and Amazon Prime in the UK and US.
🛫 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
The Sun is constantly changing; it is not just a constant ball of fire. Dr Ryan French joins us to tell us about the Sun's behaviour, space weather, and the impact of space hazards on Earth. So if you've ever wondered how solar activity affects our technology, the risks of space junk, and the future of space safety, then this is the show for you!
Follow Ryan on BlueSky: bsky.app/profile/ryanjfrench.bsky.social
Grab a copy of Ryan's book, Space Hazards: Asteroids, Solar Flares and Cosmic Threats, at The Aviation Show Bookshop.org! 10% of all sales goes to supporting the show and independent bookshops.
🛫 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
The Hawker Typhoon and the 3" Rocket Projectile, the RP-3, have a special place in the annals of the Second World War. In this first part of a series looking at the Hawker Typhoon, we take a deep dive into the RP-3 and some of the realities of this legendary, if wonderfully inaccurate, weapon.
🛫 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
I was recently given two prints by the renowned aviation artist, the late Robert Taylor. One is going on the wall, the other... Well, that is the focus of this video, as why would I want the signature of a man like Günther Rall, an ardent servant of fascism, hanging on my wall?
You can listen to both parts of our Birds of Prey discussion with Dr. Philip Blood via The Aviation Show website here:
The B-1B Lancer has been in service for 40-years and her later life has been incredibly busy. With the Lancer's replacement, the B-21 Raider, taking to the skies, you would think the B-1B could look forward to a well earned rest. But, as Kenneth P. Katz brings up to date on the B-1's story, we see that the Lancer's story is far from done.
Buy The Supersonic BONE: A Development and Operational History of the B-1 Bomber by Kenneth P. Katz at The Aviation Show Bookshop. 10% of each sale supports the show.
🛫 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
Discover shows related to The Aviation Show, based on actual content similarities. Explore podcasts with similar topics, themes, and formats, backed by real data.
🛫 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
